Dinner 2016 (Part 7)

[Thanks for the Crepes]

 

9 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

 

Then, once you have passed that entrance requirement, it's on to the live shrimp taste test!

 

Erm, uh, one step at a time. 

[HungryChris]

French Bread Pizza. Meatball, mushroom, pepper and onion and leftover kielbasa, mushroom, pepper and onion. Tomato, cuke and onion salad.

HC

 

[huiray]

2 hours ago, Thanks for the Crepes said:

The salt and pepper shrimp sounds very interesting, and I've heard of shrimp fried in their shells that are intended to be eaten shell and all. I actually have eaten deep fried shrimp with tail on, which is common here, and the tail is crunchy and will crumble under you teeth. Stir fried shrimp like I cooked last night do not get the shell to that state, as I found when I discovered a small piece of shell I missed and had to pick out. It is very tough and inedible. "Get out of the kitchen!", I can hear G. Ramsey screaming.  So I would infer that you are talking about a deep or shallow fried dish. I would appreciate your instruction as to how to achieve this edible crisp shell without making the flesh of the shrimp overcooked and rubbery.

 

It can be tricky for a home cook, and tricky for me too. Often there is a trade-off between crispy shells/heads and still-completely-succulent flesh. One needs very hot oil in a big pan (or wok) and the place will smell for a while. ;-)  So I might go for a "professionally-done" dish in a restaurant sometimes instead. :-)  Still, a couple of examples I've posted here on eG: here, here. One tries to select fresh shrimp with thin shells, not too large. Chilling them helps also. Cornstarch helps. A couple of recipes here, here. Folks use Sichuan peppercorns in some recipes (general search here) but I myself never have. The formerly-active prolific eGulleteer hzrt8w posted a pictorial here too. Oh, one needs to eat it while still hot. As the dish/shrimp cools and sits on the plate the shells etc get UN-crispy faster and faster. With a big plate of this stuff I often end up peeling the shells off the last few shrimps.

Edited August 5, 2016 by huiray (log)

[Thanks for the Crepes]

Thanks, @huiray,

 

I bookmarked your links, will do further research, and perhaps walk up to one of the places I can get this dish in a restaurant to see what is like when my husband isn't home. I always like to eat a dish cooked by someone who knows what they are doing so I have a place to start from. It sounds incredible that shrimp shells can be made edible, but I've happily crunched on many a tail.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I cooked in the oven tonight for the first time since I took delivery of my Cuisinart CSO-300N.  Odd, I know, but you see I wanted both roast potatoes and roast chicken (actually, half a Griggstown Farm poussin).  Seasoned with thyme and rosemary.  Regrettably I had not the foresight to order more than one CSO.

 

Served with thirty second green beans.  By remarkable coincidence I sat down to dine to the green bean chapter of Marcella Hazan's Ingredienti.  I don't think Marcella would have been fond of my thirty second green beans.

 

No matter.  These green beans are young Guatemalan beans of a quality I cannot find from locally sourced green beans.  They keep for about a week in the refrigerator.  Incomparable steamed for thirty seconds.

 

 

[liuzhou]

I myself (as opposed to I myself someone else?) have never found shell-on shrimp/prawns tricky.

 

I have a fond memory of my niece visiting a few years back. On her first day, I took her to my local market where among other goodies we bought some live wild shrimp. Back home I prepared some sea salt and some Sichuan pepper by putting it into a rice bowl.

 

Then a very hot wok, shallow frying amount of oil and applied heat. Niece was instructed that her function for the day was to catch any of the shrimp which jumped out of the wok when I tipped them in. She thought I was joking. I waited until the wok was damned hot then threw in the shrimp. As I knew they would, the more lively leapt back out and niece scampered around the kitchen trying to find them, then throw them back into the wok. Few leapt out twice. The salt and pepper was tipped in and the shrimp and seasoning energetically stirred. As soon as they were all pink, they were served.

Niece announced they were the best shrimp she had ever eaten, which will do me. Yes, they have to be eaten immediately, though.

But that's how I always cook them.

Shell-on is the default around these parts, although there are also shelled preparations. One generally prefers the shell-on dishes. Shell-on shrimp with green tea is a favourite.

I'd give the recipe for the live shrimp, but it is so complicated that one isn't sure one can do it justice.

[liuzhou]

 

Steamed sea bass with garlic, ginger, Shaoxing wine, red and green chillies, soy sauce, sea salt and baby cucumber "scales".

 

Served with rice and stir fried lettuce.

Edited August 6, 2016 by liuzhou
Punctuation (log)

[Shelby]

Steve, your fried green tomatoes and eggplant look perfect.  I hope you and your wife heal up FAST.  

 

RRO, I love me some crawfish.  I do believe that races would have livened up the afternoon.  I've tried to do that here at home but each time the race is interrupted by a couple of cats that can't keep their paws off of the competitors.

 

Lovely fish, Liuzhou.  I always like it when the whole fish is served like that.

 

 

 

 

 

I had some frozen tomatoes from last summer...and a plethora of squash and eggplant so I made some sauce.  There are some venison zucchini meatballs hiding under there that I made in the steam boy Cuisinart.  Good stuff.  Oh and zoodles.  No pasta.  I love my pasta.  But, I can deal with zoodles.  They surprise me at how close they come to the real deal.  OH and we are really liking the marinated eggplant (seen on the what are you preserving thread).  We use it as dressing and everything on salad.  Highly recommended.

 

[Okanagancook]

Second attempt at Lee Brothers smothered pork chop, this time using the egg/milk dip on the chop before the flour/cornmeal dip.  They were definitely better than last time without the egg/milk dip but no where as crusted as the cookbook picture.  They must have doubled dipped!  Along with the chops:  IP grits and string beans from the garden.  The grits recipe was from thisoldgal.com.  Total cooking time on high pressure steam was 10 minutes.  The grits were done but not creamy smooth like when one makes them on the stovetop stirring occasionally BUT, 10 minutes for grits that are pretty good is ok by a non-Southerner! 

[rotuts]

@Okanagancook  

 

after the IP session for the grits, would vigorous stirring add to creaminess or simply smoosh-up the individual elements of the dish 

 

taking out that wonderful texture that creamy grits sill has ?

[Okanagancook]

I could have tried whisking it in a larger bowl.  Next time I'm doing 3 minutes longer in the IP and if not really creamy after that I will try the whisk, good idea.

[mgaretz]

Simple dinner of CAB sirloin steak (cooked SV to 125F and seared with a torch), corn and salad.  The corn was so sweet it didn't need any butter or salt.

 

 

[sartoric]

Smoked paprika chicken baked on a bed of chopped up fennel, whole garlic and cherry tomatoes. Chickpeas, zucchini and chicken stock added for the last 30 minutes. A little minty yoghurt on top.

 

[Anna N]

@sartoric

 

 And the bread? It was the first thing that caught my eye.

[sartoric]

5 minutes ago, Anna N said:

@sartoric

 

 And the bread? It was the first thing that caught my eye.

It's an olive sourdough bought from our local supermarket

[scubadoo97]

Wife's away so a green light to anything porky.  

 

I had SV a small slab of pork belly a while back and froze it in 2 inch blocks 

 

Broiled it it with a glaze of orange juice, butter, soy sauce, sweet chili sauce, palm sugar and a little 5 spice powder.  Made a nice small meal

 

 

Edited August 5, 2016 by scubadoo97 (log)

[robirdstx]

11 minutes ago, scubadoo97 said:

Wife's away so a green light to anything porky.  

 

I had SV a small slab of pork belly a while back and froze it in 2 inch blocks 

 

Broiled it it with a glaze of orange juice, butter, soy sauce, sweet chili sauce, palm sugar and a little 5 spice powder.  Made a nice small meal

 

 

 

 

OMG! That looks amazing!

[ElsieD]

A couple of weeks ago we went to a restaurant where we had a dish the chef called Smoor Daging, an Indonesian dish.  We really liked it and he was nice enough to email me the recipe.  I cooked it up tonight and I'm embarrassed to say we almost set an eating speed record, it was that good.  Appearance wise some greenery would have been in order but the side salad lived up the plate a bit.

[ElsieD]

On Wednesday, August 03, 2016 at 7:14 PM, FauxPas said:

@ElsieD and @demiglace, I should mention that I find both recipes have too much sugar in them. I made a half recipe of the Canadian Living version and halved the sugar and I would do the same with the Akis recipe. 

 

Alas, both recipes make much more than I could possibly eat.  Plus, I no longer have my canning equipment.  But thank you for posting.  

[sartoric]

@ElsieD, that looks delicious. I had a quick look at Google and there are many recipes.

Would you share your one provided by the nice chef ?

 

[ElsieD]

1 hour ago, sartoric said:

@ElsieD, that looks delicious. I had a quick look at Google and there are many recipes.

Would you share your one provided by the nice chef ?

 

 

I sent you a PM

[kayswv]

2 hours ago, ElsieD said:

 

I sent you a PM

 

4 hours ago, ElsieD said:

A couple of weeks ago we went to a restaurant where we had a dish the chef called Smoor Daging, an Indonesian dish.  We really liked it and he was nice enough to email me the recipe.  I cooked it up tonight and I'm embarrassed to say we almost set an eating speed record, it was that good.  Appearance wise some greenery would have been in order but the side salad lived up the plate a bit.

 

3 hours ago, sartoric said:

@ElsieD, that looks delicious. I had a quick look at Google and there are many recipes.

Would you share your one provided by the nice chef ?

 

Could you possibly post your interpretation of what the chef gave you on the recipe thread, so we could all enjoy? I definitely agree it looks more than great. 

Kay  

[huiray]

Chow Mei Fun.

Plain bubbly omelette: very hot oil, eggs beaten w/ water, oil, salt, white pepper; then cut up.

Oil, garlic, ginger, scallion whites, red-orange carrots, karuveppilai, Madras curry powder, cabbage, Chinese long beans, deseeded hot green chillies, softened mei fun, shaved beef, scallion greens, cut-up omelette, fish sauce.

[rarerollingobject]

Da yabbies - Sichuanese ma la (‘hot and numbing’) butter fire; first you make a seasoning spice mix with chilli flakes, dried chillies, white peppercorns, Sichuan peppercorns, bay leaves, black cardamom, cumin, ground coriander, fennel seeds, five spice powder, and curry powder.

 

Then you stir together doubanjan chilli broad bean paste, Shaohsing rice wine, 17 cloves of garlic, green onions, ginger, brown sugar, a whole pack of butter, chicken stock and two more cups of dried chillis.

 

Then you braise that all together into fiery, peppery, buttery goodness and simmer the yabbies in it (after par freezing them in an ice bath slurry to put them to sleep and then spiking them through the head to kill them quickly), before pouring the lot over blanched e-fu noodles and digging in.

 

 

Edited August 6, 2016 by rarerollingobject (log)

[ElainaA]

7 hours ago, kayswv said:

 

Could you possibly post your interpretation of what the chef gave you on the recipe thread, so we could all enjoy? I definitely agree it looks more than great. 

Kay  

I'd like to second that request.