Dinner 2016 (Part 8)

[Okanagancook]

Shelby, your okra always look so good!  I have some in the fridge for tomorrow!  Our Superstore seems to have them quite regularly but you have to get there early 'cause they sometimes aren't that small.  Yesterday I had just raked over the two boxes, picking out almost all of the small ones...did a bit more shopping and then I saw a lady over at the okra peering into the piles of six inch okra. I felt sooooo guilty.

[Shelby]

7 minutes ago, Okanagancook said:

Shelby, your okra always look so good!  I have some in the fridge for tomorrow!  Our Superstore seems to have them quite regularly but you have to get there early 'cause they sometimes aren't that small.  Yesterday I had just raked over the two boxes, picking out almost all of the small ones...did a bit more shopping and then I saw a lady over at the okra peering into the piles of six inch okra. I felt sooooo guilty.

Thank you!  I can't believe the okra plants...they are over 5' tall.  Soon I will have to stand on tip-toes to pick.

[kayb]

1 hour ago, Shelby said:

Lots and lots of rain.  River came up yesterday so the fish were boiling.

 

 

@Shelby, how do you bread/batter your fish? That looks more like a batter than a dry breading. And were they cat, or of the bass family?

 

[Shelby]

Just now, kayb said:

@Shelby, how do you bread/batter your fish? That looks more like a batter than a dry breading. And were they cat, or of the bass family?

 

I did a beer batter.  Equal parts of flour and cornstarch with a light beer poured in ( I usually do 1/2 a cup of flour and cornstarch and use most of the can of beer.  Too much beer and it's too runny, though.  You want to be able to leave a "trail" in the batter if that makes sense.)

 

They are all catfish.  

[kayb]

1 minute ago, Shelby said:

I did a beer batter.  Equal parts of flour and cornstarch with a light beer poured in ( I usually do 1/2 a cup of flour and cornstarch and use most of the can of beer.  Too much beer and it's too runny, though.  You want to be able to leave a "trail" in the batter if that makes sense.)

 

They are all catfish.  

Makes sense. Thanks.

 

[suzilightning]

Went up Wednesday to celebrate my FIL's and his wife's 25th anniversary and it was wonderful to be able to see them....we went out to dinner Thursday but before then Johnnybird, his sister and I hung out at her house and we did breakfast for dinner..... I had stopped at Quaker Creek Store in NY and got some of their homemade bologna.   On the way up I stopped at Quattros store in Pleasant Valley NY to use some of the gift certificates I have received over the last year.   Got some duck breasts for later... some salads for right now and then some local free range eggs.

 

Can you say bologna and egg frittata with toasted bread?  One of the best and satisfying things I have had in a while.

 

Now I just picked up some heirloom tomatoes, peaches that need to be ripened and an ear of local corn....

[sartoric]

Linguine with clams in a white wine and garlic sauce. Served with a salad of beet greens, broccoli leaves and baby spinach, plus sourdough.

 

 

I also made a pineapple tarte tartin, served with ice cream. Needs work.

[scubadoo97]

Love the use of beet greens

[Norm Matthews]

I thought I'd try this recipe for General Tso's Chicken and Charlie was amused that I'd make something that we could pick up the phone and have delivered in a fraction of the time.  When he tried it he said it didn't taste like the kind we got from the restaurant but he liked it better.

[Anna N]

 

Roasted acorn squash with a chili-lime vinaigrette.

 

[scubadoo97]

Sea scallops and corn relish tonight 

 

[robirdstx]

Steak Night! My half of the grilled rib eye and a baked potato with butter, sour cream and green onions:

 

 

 

 

Edited September 10, 2016 by robirdstx (log)

[Dejah]

Parmesan Chicken brushed with mayo, coated with grated Parmesan cheese and  bread crumbs made from the crusts of a low-carb bread.

I had salad with Southwest dressing and hubby had corn-on-the-cob.

[Thanks for the Crepes]

7 hours ago, sartoric said:

I also made a pineapple tarte tartin, served with ice cream. Needs work.

 

Your small clams with linguine looks so good, and I think beet greens just might be my very favorite green of all.

 

@David Rossjust detailed how he makes his very nice-looking apple tarte tatin over here. Maybe you can get some ideas from it for your pineapple one. Here's a link to the post where he shows photos of his apple version.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Ah, what were sold as rib end pork chops.  From my limited knowledge of anatomy these are more like neck.  But so red and fatty and so flavorful!  Such a reward for a bit of knife work.  Cooked over my seldom used but much appreciated Zojirushi grill.  Lots of rosemary.  Did I mention that this meat was cheap?  Comparable in flavor to a Berkshire chop, if not quite as simple to navigate.

 

With the last of my sous vide sweet potatoes steam baked in the CSO two hours.  Before I worked out this technique sweet potatoes were something to suffer through.

 

Five minute boiled (or if you will, blanched) Brussels sprouts.  Such a delight.  When the baked sweet potato ran out I switched to leftover CSO steam baked red potatoes.  And applesauce with mace.

 

Dessert is Balaklava Special No. 1, Charles H. Baker Jr.  Appropriate when one does not have to get up in the afternoon.

 

[ProfessionalHobbit]

I'm really beginning to think that San Francisco is a city full of mediocre restaurants, and that the number of places that are good to great are not as numerous as the culinary cognoscenti would have us believe.

 

We had heard that Blue Plate was an "underrated" restaurant and worth checking out.  Well, we threw away $80 tonight and learned our lesson.

 

We arrived 20 minutes early and were ignored by the FOH for the first 10 minutes while they flitted around attending to other things.  The "waiting area" was 5' x 6' and served not only as the restaurant's vestibule but the place where the host's/hostess' cash register/payment center/table management software was located.  And there was one other party along with us who had to make do in that limited space while several parties exited the establishment, and while staff carried plates of food to waiting tables.  Basically a disaster from the word "go".

 

 

Bibb lettuce salad with tahini vinaigrette, strawberries, avocado, pumpkin seeds and dukka spices.  

 

B pronounced this combination as "unworkable".

 

 

Monterey Bay squid with charred eggplant, treviso radicchio, chicken skin, harissa and nepitella.

 

The harissa overwhelmed all other elements to the point that it was a one-note dish. Horrible execution and plating.

 

 

Oyster mushroom casarecce with smoked chicken, with preserved lemon, fines herbes, baby leeks, summer truffles and pecorino.

 

This was probably the best thing we ate tonight...and that's saying something. By the way, B left half of his plate untouched.

 

 

Grilled escarole with linguiça sausage, balsamic vinegar and burnt orange.

 

This might have been fine were it not swimming in grease.

 

 

Tri-tip steak with blistered peppers, charred cauliflower mash, burnt onion relish, house-made steak sauce.

 

Someone in the kitchen has a free hand with the salt shaker. Also I get it..."ash" is on trend for 2016 but can we please knock it off with the gimmicks already?

 

The steak itself was fine, the accompaniments were trying too hard.

 

We skipped dessert, paid the check and split.

 

Blue Plate
3218 Mission Street (29th Street)
Outer Mission

[rotuts]

@Norm Matthews 

 

which Rx did you use for the GTC ?

 

looks terrific.

[Norm Matthews]

41 minutes ago, rotuts said:

@Norm Matthews 

 

which Rx did you use for the GTC ?

 

looks terrific.

It was one from Serious Eats.  The recipe is posted at the link at the bottom of the post.

 

 

[liuzhou]

I apologise from the heart of my bottom. I have no intention of terrifying you, but please call for an ambulance or any other emergency service. Call for UN intervention forces. Call for Ghostbusters. Call my mother!

I've accidentally gone vegetarian (nearly). But worry not. Only for one emergency meal. Tomorrow my teeth will be ripping raw meat from the sides of un-slaughtered livestock as usual.

This momentous insult to gastronomy and good taste has come about due to a fridge malfunction and I need to empty said ice-box before the people who know about fridges turn up to overcharge me for returning it to sensible behaviour.

So, what we have (I had) was a sort of soupy thing with carrots, celery, leeks, garlic, cranberry beans, garlic and conchiglie in a CHICKEN broth. (See, I haven't surrendered yet!)  And a bit of baguette I found in the still functioning freezer section.

 

 

Edited September 10, 2016 by liuzhou
Punctuation (log)

[shain]

I made penne alla Norma, but I forgot to take a picture

 

I found this pic from last summer. Today's dish differs by the use of penne rather then rigatoni, the eggplant being cut to larger pieces and the basil cut into chiffonade. Also, I now enjoy plating individual dishes, rather then the more efficient method of serving directly from the pan,

 

Both this year and the last I opted to bake the cubed eggplants rather then frying. I'm not a fan of fried eggplants, not the process and not the result, which I find taste more of oil then of itself.

As for pasta shape - I think rigatoni suits this dish better due to their larger size.

Edited September 10, 2016 by shain (log)

[robirdstx]

50 minutes ago, Norm Matthews said:

It was one from Serious Eats.  The recipe is posted at the link at the bottom of the post.

 

 

 

I am going to make this tonight. Any tweaks I should make?

[Mmmpomps]

Celebration Dinner at Charcut. Started with a gift from the kitchen they do all their charcuterie in house. Delicious oysters with grated radish root , lemon and tomato mignonette...sooo good! Asparagus lightly battered with just a perfect crispy bite.The Man had the bison brisket with a pile of crispy boar bacon with polenta and breech mushrooms. I kept popping my fork in this as often as I could get away with!  I had the Buratta Salad with chile's and arugula mmmm spicy salad, creamy cheese. Dessert was rhubarb compote cheesecake in a mason jar and warm chocolate chip cookies for me! I usually get the poutine the fries are cooked in duck fat, gravy with truffle oil and squeeky cheese curds....but the salad called my name last nite, yet the poutine is still on my mind:

[rotuts]

@Mmmpomps  

 

everything looks soooo  good.

 

what's the top pic ?   looks like some sausage w a sprinkling of cheese ? 

[Norm Matthews]

9 hours ago, robirdstx said:

 

I am going to make this tonight. Any tweaks I should make?

 

Well, here is what I did:  I made everything up in the morning and put the chicken in the marinade. I covered everything separately and refrigerated it until the evening.  I had more than a pound of chicken thighs so I doubled the extra marinade and dry coat.  I used dry sherry instead of the Chinese wine.  Next time I make it, I will consider doubling the scallion in the sauce. And I fried the chicken pieces about ten pieces at a time for about two minutes each.  They were crispy after that time. After all of them were fried, I put them all back in the oil at once and fried them for another minute before they were transferred to a skillet to be sauced.  

Edited September 10, 2016 by Norm Matthews (log)

[Mmmpomps]

2 hours ago, rotuts said:

@Mmmpomps  

 

everything looks soooo  good.

 

what's the top pic ?   looks like some sausage w a sprinkling of cheese ? 

 

Yes it was delish  I can't remember what our waitress said the meat was! But it has grated Asiago cheese I believe and excellent olive oil! I was casually leaving the meat description out of the post and you busted me rotuts