Dinner 2016 (Part 7)

[Steve Irby]

Last nights dinner-blackened chicken thighs with basil avocado cream, new potatoes and tomato/zucchini ribbons.

The thighs were deboned, trimmed of excess fat.  I nuked the trimmings for cracklings and schmaltz.

The first course tonight was from way back in the freezer.  Winter squash ravioli with brown butter and sage. 

 

[Thanks for the Crepes]

Tonight I made a pork stir fry with onions, carrot, shredded green cabbage, garlic, ginger, jalapeno, MSG, with a beef broth/soy sauce thickened with cornstarch. Crispy snow peas and slices of green bell pepper stirred in at the last moment, brought back to boil and served over jasmine rice with more of the sweet and fragrant cantaloupe my brother brought over. It was probably not authentic, but it was definitely tasty.

Edited August 12, 2016 by Thanks for the Crepes (log)

[JoNorvelleWalker]

A simple salad of tomatoes, organic cucumber, and rather wilted organic spinach.

 

 

http://tribade.org/Food/Dinner08122016.png

 

 

The tomatoes were not mine, not that a don't have a plentitude of my own, but who am I to refuse a gift?

 

Not sure if it was the vinegar or the ammoniacal fromage, but I suffered a disturbing gustatory hallucination:  my Soave was disgustingly sweet.  Not that that precluded me from drinking a great deal.

 

 

Sadly the picture of the baguette was an after thought:

 

 

http://tribade.org/Food/Baguette08122016.png

 

 

[HungryChris]

Stuffed shells and bruschetta.

HC

 

 

[liamsaunt]

Corn and cherry tomato tart.  I am not a good crust maker as you can see.

 

 

A slice with some eggplant fries and salad

 

[kayb]

3 hours ago, liamsaunt said:

Corn and cherry tomato tart.  I am not a good crust maker as you can see.

 

 

A slice with some eggplant fries and salad

 

That is a lovely creation.

[weinoo]

 

Sardinian fregola with Long Island littlenecks and NY State cherry tomatoes.

[Anna N]

@weinoo

 

 I admit that I have never heard of Sardinian fregola but when I look it up via Google I am told that Israeli couscous is a good substitute.  Can you comment?

Edited August 12, 2016 by Anna N (log)

[liuzhou]

Dinner tonight was a disaster.

 

I haven't really felt great all day. Nothing specific or serious. Just not on top. I went shopping in the morning and got excited by some ingredients that I picked up.

 

 

 

(I'll leave you to work out what they are until I get round to using them.)

 

However when dinner time came around I had no mood to cook, but knew I must eat. I then ignored all the ingredients I had bought and made the worst spaghetti and meatballs ever. I've been cooking this dish for nigh on 50 years; friends request it;  but today it just didn't work. It was awful. I forgot that had added a whole load of anchovies to the tomato sauce then added too much salt. The tomato paste I knew for a fact I had in the pantry turned out to be a delusion. I cooked the pasta without salt to make up for the over-salted sauce but overcooked it. Miraculously the meatballs were OK. But it was a miserable, if just edible meal.

 

I guess we all have our off days. Try again tomorrow.

Edited August 12, 2016 by liuzhou
typos (log)

[weinoo]

Good question, @Anna N.  I imagine if you can find Israeli couscous made from semolina flour, and cook it in the style of pasta vs. the absorption method used for couscous, it would come close.

 

Additionally, fregola is toasted, so there's that step too!

 

I bought a few of these in Rome on our recent trip, as I have trouble finding it here in NYC. It's available on Amazon, but it's a fortune.

 

 

And somewhere, sometime I remember seeing one of Lidia's TV shows, where she made fregola - and it looked fairly simple. 

[Anna N]

@weinoo

 

I didn't think there was ANYTHING one couldn't get in NYC.   I may have to start a list.  I appreciate your answer but it doesn't sound like they are real substitutes for one another but perhaps make-dos. 

[weinoo]

1 hour ago, liuzhou said:

 

(I'll leave you to work out what they are until I get round to using them.)

 

 

Dried lily flowers?  Some weird variation on eggplant?

 

51 minutes ago, Anna N said:

@weinoo

 

I didn't think there was ANYTHING one couldn't get in NYC.   I may have to start a list.  I appreciate your answer but it doesn't sound like they are real substitutes for one another but perhaps make-dos. 

 

Yes, make-dos is exactly what I'd call them.

[Shelby]

This was so good.  Seriously.  I finally got over my fear and made a lasagna using strips of zucchini for the noodles.  As ya'll know I love me some pasta so ....yeah...this was a big hurdle for me lol.  However, I was really hungry this morning....I chalk it up to such a healthy meal last night.

 

[Anna N]

@Shelby

 

 You know I have never been a fan of lasagna but you might convince me to try it with zucchini instead of pasta. I'm not averse to pasta  but I have been faced with some really dreadful, dried out lasagna in my life. I associate lasagna with pathology since it was at my hospital's pathologist's yearly party that I ran into the worst case of dried out lasangna.  Fortunately I was called out that evening and gave thanks to Heaven for the opportunity to escape. zucchini doesn't carry quite so much baggage. 

[Shelby]

8 minutes ago, Anna N said:

@Shelby

 

 You know I have never been a fan of lasagna but you might convince me to try it with zucchini instead of pasta. I'm not averse to pasta  but I have been faced with some really dreadful, dried out lasagna in my life. I associate lasagna with pathology since it was at my hospital's pathologist's yearly party that I ran into the worst case of dried out lasangna.  Fortunately I was called out that evening and gave thanks to Heaven for the opportunity to escape. zucchini doesn't carry quite so much baggage. 

I highly recommend trying it.  I did way more strips than you think you need...I  used a potato peeler so they were pretty thin, thus I layered 2 or 3 for more sturdiness and ended up using them all--I did 2 med. sized zukes and baked mine in a bread pan.  I should have done some eggplant in there too but I was rushed for time.  Don't forget to salt the zuke and let it sit for a while.  Makes it less runny.

[scubadoo97]

Just playing around with things near by.

 

Was thawing out some Patagnian scallops.  Wasn't sure what to do with them.  Had a bag of oranges and a pack of grape tomatoes in the fridge and mint growing outside.  Put together this simple crudo. 

 

A hand full of raw scallops sliced, a single grape tomato, dressing of half an orange with pulp and zest with a touch of salt and a small drizzle of olive oil. 

 

I'm making some more it was good!

 

 

 

Edited August 13, 2016 by scubadoo97
Can't type on a cell phone (log)

[liuzhou]

7 hours ago, weinoo said:

8 hours ago, liuzhou said:

 

(I'll leave you to work out what they are until I get round to using them.)

 

 

Dried lily flowers?  Some weird variation on eggplant?

 

I can see why you think so, but "no" on both counts.

[HungryChris]

Kielbasa and onions cooked in foil on the grill with salads.

HC

 

[robirdstx]

10 hours ago, liuzhou said:

Dinner tonight was a disaster.

 

I haven't really felt great all day. Nothing specific or serious. Just not on top. I went shopping in the morning and got excited by some ingredients that I picked up.

 

 

 

(I'll leave you to work out what they are until I get round to using them.)

 

Sorry you are not feeling well.  Please feel better soon.

 

My best guess for the first item is some sort of dried mushroom. As for the second, not a clue, but looking forward to seeing what you do with them.

[huiray]

Soup.

Chicken stock, rendered chicken fat, water, basil, beet greens.

Beet greens were from a bunch of Chioggia beets [Silverthorn Farm].

 

Trimmed & washed basil.

From my deck.

Yes, the flowers that were left on the basil went into the soup.

 

Chicken stir-fry w/ fried rice.

Hot oil, chopped smashed garlic, chopped-up local chicken thighs, salt, cut-up pattypan squashes & green+purple yard-long beans [both Farming Engineers], hon-mirin [Takara], cut-up Vidalia onion, this-and-that.

Hot oil, chopped scallions (lots), chopped de-stringed celery, 2-day-old white rice, salt.

 

Chicken & stuff in the pan.

Edited August 13, 2016 by huiray (log)

[Thanks for the Crepes]

@liuzhou,

 

Like weinoo, I also thought your first mystery ingredient was dried lily buds, but that theory did not pan out. Is the second ingredient a tiny hot pepper? An old boyfriend grew something similarly colored and they were WAY too hot for me.

 

Our dinner was just the leftover stir fry from last night with a lettuce, tomato, cucumber and cheddar salad, more cantaloupe, Thompson seedless grapes and black muscadines from right here in NC. Food Lion has finally come up with a marketing scheme I can get behind and is offering locally produced products in its mainstream grocery stores here in the Southeast. The last marketing scheme I remember was "We are lowering prices!". If you were familiar with their prices, they actually raised many of them. 

[huiray]

Dried cordyceps.

Chili peppers.

[liuzhou]

On 13/08/2016 at 10:16 AM, robirdstx said:

 

Sorry you are not feeling well.  Please feel better soon.

 

My best guess for the first item is some sort of dried mushroom. As for the second, not a clue, but looking forward to seeing what you do with them.

 

Thanks for your good wishes. Feeling better today.

Sorry, No 1 is not mushrooms, either.

 

On 13/08/2016 at 11:20 AM, Thanks for the Crepes said:

@liuzhou,

 

Like weinoo, I also thought your first mystery ingredient was dried lily buds, but that theory did not pan out. Is the second ingredient a tiny hot pepper? An old boyfriend grew something similarly colored and they were WAY too hot for me.

 

 

Yes. Well done. They are chili peppers. Tiny chili peppers (around the size of a small grape) and very hot. Here is my hand holding one. I'll probably use some of them with dinner tonight.

 

In Chinese they are known as 五彩椒 (wǔ cǎi jiāo) or 五色椒 (wǔ sè jiāo) both of which literally mean "five-colour peppers", but Chinese numbers can be vague* so it just means "multi-coloured peppers". I've also seen them described as 米椒 (mǐ jiāo) or "rice peppers".

 

*It always amuses me when websites, blogs etc solemnly list the 5 spices which make up Chinese "5-spice" powder. In fact, 5-spice powder often has more than five ingredients. A popular brand available locally has 18. That said, 5-spice powder is not so ubiquitous as many people outside China imagine. I can't remember the last time I tasted it.

 

@huiray Not cordyceps.

 

 

Edited August 14, 2016 by liuzhou (log)

[huiray]

2 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

@huiray Not cordyceps.

 

Ah, OK. 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Tonight Pasta Fredda with Cherry Tomatoes, Anchovies and Herbs:

 

 

http://tribade.org/Food/Dinner08132016.png

 

From David Tanis, the NY Times.  Too much raw garlic and onion for me, and not enough anchovy.  And I fancy that I like raw garlic.  I doubt I shall be making this again.

 

Oh, and there was a baguette and Soave of course (not shown).