Dinner 2016 (Part 4)

[rarerollingobject]

Sticky rice pork balls, in gochujang chilli sauce. If you're familiar with mochi, or tang yuan sesame balls, it's the same dough; chewy, toothsome pounded rice, wrapped around a ball of ground pork shoulder, ginger, white pepper and sesame oil.

 

And the sauce is garlic, soju rice wine, ginger, gochujang chilli paste, honey and rice vinegar, boiled down into liquid fire. Chewy hot balls, best with green onion, lots of cracked black pepper, and more roasted sesame oil.

 

 

[liuzhou]

Tonight I had a couple of home made duckburgers. Here's one.

 

 

There were some fries, too. But I guess you know what they look like, so no photograph.

[David Ross]

On 4/24/2016 at 9:25 PM, Patrick S said:

We did an Octoberfest-themed dinner tonight, with saurbraten made with chuck roast, pretzel squares, German potato salad.

Boy would I like the recipe for the pretzel squares.

 

[David Ross]

Char Siu Lamb.  While the meat looks medium, it was actually a nice, juicy, medium-rare.  The charred bits were especially good.

[BonVivant]

Not much cooking today. I simmered the sauce (5-spice, tamari, "Peking duck" sauce etc) then warmed the meat in it. Made a salad and sliced the ciabatta. Didn't even bother to toast the bread this time.

 

 

[jvalentino]

Case of the Mondays=leftover pasta frittata for dinner. 

[Patrick S]

9 hours ago, David Ross said:

Boy would I like the recipe for the pretzel squares.

 

 

No problem. This recipe comes from Lina Kulchinsky of Sigmund's Pretzels in NYC, via Martha Stewart Living. It's a great recipe, with great flavor and easy to work with. The recipe below is adapted from the February 2016 issue of Living.

 

Dough

2 cups 110F water

2 packages rapid rise yeast (I use 14g active dry yeast)

0.5 cup (packed) dark brown sugar (light brown works also)

6.5C bread flour (1kg)

4Tb coarse salt

4oz/1 stick unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

 

Boiling Water

8C water

0.5C baking soda

0.5C pale ale beer (i just use any unflavored beer)

0.25C dark brown sugar (again light works fine also)

 

Method

Mix water, sugar and yeast in bowl. Let stand til foamy.

In your mixer bowl, combine flour and salt.

Add butter and mix in with your hands or a dough blender (like you'd use to cut the fat into biscuit dough) til crumbly.

Add in the yeast mixture, and combine slowly with hands or spatula to get a shaggy dough with most of the water absorbed.

Mix with dough-hook on medium-low speed until you get a nice, tight, smooth dough. It should clear the bowl, but if not, add 1T of flour, and mix thoroughly, repeating if necessary until the dough clears the sides of the bowl.

Cover and refrigerate at least 8 hours. I've held the dough up to a couple of days before using.

 

Turn on the oven to 450F to preheat, and get your boiling water on the heat to get that simmering. I use a large, shallow Dutch oven for the boiling.

 

On a floured surface, roll the dough to a 12" by 14" rectangle.

You can shape your pretzels in a number of ways. You can even shape them like pretzels if you are good at that sort of thing. Like I said, the dough is great to work with. The butter seems to make shaping easier, inhibiting gluten formation, so there's not too much shrink-back as you roll it out. I made squares just because I was running up against the clock and that was the easiest way to portion the dough, and I wanted to make the serving sizes small.

 

To make the squares, simply cut the dough with a pizza cutter or large knife into strips about 2" wide, and then cut the strips into squares. If you don't want the blocky shape, then roll the strips into a rounded shape, then snip the strips into desired dimensions. I also like shaping the rounded strips into knots and pinwheels.

 

Set up a sheet pan covered with parchment nearby. You'll probably need 2 half-sheet pans if you make the whole batch.

 

Once you got your dough cut/portioned the way you want, boil a few pieces at a time for 30 seconds. Dunk the pieces to submerge while they boil.

Remove the pieces from the water with a skimmer or whatever similar tool you have, and set on the prepared sheet. Sprinkle with some coarse salt.

 

Once you've got the pretzels boiled and sprinkled with salt, bake for 5 minutes. Then, rotate the pan and bake for an additional 3-6 minutes. If you have 2 sheets baking at once, rotate the sheets 180 degrees, and switch the shelves at the 5 minute mark. This weekend I baked both sheets at once, and needed a couple of extra minutes to get a perfect dark brown, maybe 13 minutes cumulatively.

 

We served with beer cheese and extra saurbraten gravy. A mustard dip obviously would be yummy as well.

[HungryChris]

There is nothing glamorous about cleaning squid. When super fresh Point Judith squid is on sale at $2.99 a lb, I get motivated. Dinner tonight was an opportunity to capitalize on that and I didn't mind the effort. Deb wanted a marinara  with her calamari, instead of the usual kimchi tartar  sauce so I found a nice one from Anne Burrell and whipped it up.

HC

 

 

Edited April 26, 2016 by HungryChris (log)

[ElsieD]

I've been working on getting my recipes together in one place, from two tablets, a lap top and the main computer.  While doing this, I came across a recipe for Indonesian-Style Ham Stir Fry which I had not made in ages.  I had the ham and here is the dish.   Underneath the stir-fry are Shiritaki noodles.  I made a flan today so I figure having the Shiritaki noodles means there is room to indulge in dessert.

[Norm Matthews]

Shrimp was on sale but the bag was small so I thought I'd add some stuffed clams and jerk pork chops.  Turned out to be a little too much for the two of us.  Also had rice, an Asian style slaw and roasted brussels sprouts 

 

[liuzhou]

5 hours ago, HungryChris said:

There is nothing glamorous about cleaning squid.

 

I really enjoy cleaning and preparing squid.

 

OK. I'm officially weird.

[huiray]

Herbal duck soup.

 

Stuff for the soup.

Left-to-right: Mountain yam slices, Angelica sinensis root slices, tangerine peel pieces, wolfberries, Codonopsis pilosula root pieces, Angular Solomon's Seal rhizome slices, longan flesh, Szechuan lovage root slices.

I've listed their Chinese names and more info on the herbs/roots elsewhere on eG - look up bak kut teh posts or older duck soup posts, for example.

 

Couple of duck legs, cut up, in a thick-walled double-steamer soup bowl (with heavy lid, not shown), with the stuff from above; plus sea salt.

Water added, lid put on, steamed in a large pot for about 6-7 hours. More water added to the steaming pot as needed.

 

A portion of the soup: some of the duck pieces w/ some of the yam, Solomon's Seal rhizome, wolfberries, longan flesh; plus some of the soup.

[liamsaunt]

Saturday I made an antipasto platter

 

 

and some tuna-white bean salad

 

 

Last night: fish share was Acadian redfish.  I made it teriyaki style with some rice and green beans and mushrooms cooked with sake and soy

 

[Paul Bacino]

Green Chili stew

Made a stock with chxn in pressure cooker --usual stuff plus guajillo peppers  cooled and de-fatted over night

Grilled and peeled Pablano peppers ( that's whats avail )

Fried stewed pork with onions and garlic with cumin--add to Pressure cooker with above stock cook 10 mins@15 psi

Fry Tomitillos, cook Juanita's Hominy in Chxn stock 45 mins  add hominy to pressure cooked pork stock,  and blend tomitillios and pablano in reserved hominy stock  add to pot

cook 30 mins add cubed potato cook 15 mins

 

Sorry for spelling errors

 

 

 

 

 

 

[shain]

Soup with kneidlach (matzo balls). 

 

 

Green beans, sauteed in butter and chopped almonds, with garlic, chili and black peppercorn.
I usually prefer to use thinner beans for this dish, but only managed to get the large variety.

 

[rotuts]

@shain  

 

 your kneidlach

 

look like the kind Id like to try !

[robirdstx]

A recent dinner!

 

The Spread:

 

The Bread:

 

My Plate:

 

[ElsieD]

Couscous salad with corn and red pepper, sweet chili sauce, sriracha and ginger glazed chicken and a small tomato and cucumber salad.  I seared the chicken a tad too long but it didn't affect the taste.

[kayb]

19 hours ago, huiray said:

Herbal duck soup.

 

Stuff for the soup.

Left-to-right: Mountain yam slices, Angelica sinensis root slices, tangerine peel pieces, wolfberries, Codonopsis pilosula root pieces, Angular Solomon's Seal rhizome slices, longan flesh, Szechuan lovage root slices.

I've listed their Chinese names and more info on the herbs/roots elsewhere on eG - look up bak kut teh posts or older duck soup posts, for example.

 

I am intrigued by the mountain yam slices. Do they taste similar to regular yams? I've never seen them; are they grown in the US?

 

@liamsaunt and @robirdstx, I could easily make dinner off either of your antipasti. Lovely. Edge goes narrowly to the one with the salted ricotta, because I love that stuff.

 

Finished off my bunch of local asparagus tonight, with shrimp scampi for which I did not reduce the sauce enough before I added the shrimp back. One of my major failings in the kitchen; I do it often. You'd think I'd learn. Also had my first Arkansas strawberries of the year, procured on the way back home from Little Rock when I stopped and picked up the shrimp from a little Cajun market that brings it in fresh three times a week. While I was there, I dropped by the local diner and had their specialty, a strawberry shortcake with local berries. Old-fashioned shortcake wafers, topped off with whipped topping in a can in a nod to the place's history as a dairy bar, and the whole thing served over a base of soft-serve vanilla ice cream. Arguably the best strawberry dessert in the state.

[HungryChris]

Winner, winner, chicken dinner. The last of the mojo rotisserie chicken served up with mashed potatoes and glazed carrots along with a little mushroom and giblet gravy. What makes Deb happy, makes me happy. One of the best things was she was able to put tomorrows lunch for work  together as part of the cleanup, a win-win situation!

HC

Edited April 27, 2016 by HungryChris (log)

[liuzhou]

12 hours ago, kayb said:

I am intrigued by the mountain yam slices. Do they taste similar to regular yams? I've never seen them; are they grown in the US?

 

Pending a full answer, here is my short blog entry on these yams.

 

The do grow in parts of the US, but are considered to be an invasive species.

Edited April 27, 2016 by liuzhou (log)

[Thanks for the Crepes]

I roasted a chicken yesterday and served it with baked potatoes and a salad with iceberg, tomatoes and cucumber topped with cheddar. Neither of us wants a dressing when we have the shredded cheddar.

 

Today I made Chicken Tetrazzini and served it with leftover succotash medley, but melted some cheddar on top during the reheating. There were also sliced tomatoes. This was very good.

 

I'm glad I have the old recipe from my Betty Crocker cookbook, because in checking the spelling on Tetrazzini, I went to the BC website. The current recipe calls for Campbell's cream of mushroom soup instead of a homemade sauce. It also does not involve any wine!! 

[liamsaunt]

Sear-roasted Faroe Island salmon (also from my fish share) with creamed spinach and a tomato risotto cake made from leftover risotto from Saturday.  I did not like the risotto on Saturday in its original form and did not like the risotto cake either.  The salmon and spinach were good though.

 

[weinoo]

 

Chicken, chorizo and shrimp paella. Great texture on the rice, not enough (if any) socarrat.

 

One of these days it'll all come together.

[huiray]

14 hours ago, kayb said:

On 4/26/2016 at 2:18 AM, huiray said:

Herbal duck soup.

 

Stuff for the soup.

Left-to-right: Mountain yam slices, Angelica sinensis root slices, tangerine peel pieces, wolfberries, Codonopsis pilosula root pieces, Angular Solomon's Seal rhizome slices, longan flesh, Szechuan lovage root slices.

I've listed their Chinese names and more info on the herbs/roots elsewhere on eG - look up bak kut teh posts or older duck soup posts, for example.

 

I am intrigued by the mountain yam slices. Do they taste similar to regular yams? I've never seen them; are they grown in the US?

 

When you say "regular yams" do you mean actual yams (usually found in international and "ethnic" markets) or do you mean the soft-fleshed sweet potato that in the US has been commonly called "yams"? (See here, here)

 

In any case, As I mentioned in my post I listed links and further info in older posts of mine regarding the roots & herbs I used. Do look them up. But for this specific ingredient ("Mountain Yam") try this post, or this one. This ingredient (淮山) is also called "Chinese Yam" and I've referred to it as such as well. For interest, the character 淮 refers to (and means) a particular river in Henan & Anhui provinces in mainland China. The character 山 means "mountain". The binary Latin name for it has been "updated", from Dioscorea opposita to Dioscorea polystachya. 

 

The equivalent Japanese name is "Nagaimo" - perhaps you might know it better as that?

 

These are dried slices of the yam. Available in well-stocked Chinese groceries and Chinese or other E/SE Asian "Medicine Shops". When cooked they are not slimy at all. In contrast, if one finely ground the fresh yam one can get a slimy mound of stuff - but which is used (and appreciated) in its own way in these cuisines. Eating-wise – they (the cooked dried slices) are, uhh, "yam-my"... there is a sort of powdery but firm texture to it, not unlike slices of some starch-heavy large potatoes when freshly cooked. There is little inherent taste to them other than a "starchy" taste. They are there more for the texture contrast, complementarity and carb content, if one is not concerned with their reported medicinal benefits.

 

They would seem to be grown here in the USA also, from prior introduction of the plants - but I've certainly never seen them in Western-style markets/supermarkets. I imagine they are grown for the E/SE Asian populations here. The fresh tubers are available regularly in my usual Chinese grocery, for example.

 

See also here and here.

 

Fresh 淮山 yams are similar to the native Japanese variant, "Yamaimo", available in Japanese groceries.

Edited April 27, 2016 by huiray (log)