Lunch! What'd ya have? (Late 2016–Early 2017)

[Anna N]

 

The holidays don't need to end yet!   Braunschweiger with tomatoes and pickled herring.  Washed down with some akvavit.  

[chefmd]

Tuna with pineapple salsa and roared kohlrabi 

[liuzhou]

This was yesterday's lunch. I woke up sensing the slight signs of an oncoming cold, so decided to nuke it before it caught hold.

 

I had some chicken trimmings - head, feet, wing tip, feathers, comb, beak. All but the feathers went into making a stock along with a chunk of ankle bone from a whole Xuanwei ham, one of China's finest.

 

After the requisite simmering time of about an hour, that was sieved and muslin strained. The lumpy bits were discarded.

From there, to follow my recipe (if you can call it that):

 

a) take as much garlic as you think is sensible, double that and add a bit for good luck. Bung into stock.

 

b) chop as much ginger as you did garlic, then add a bit just to be sure.

c) decide how many spoonfuls of chili flakes you can stand and add 50% more, plus some for the pot.

 

d) boil the lot together for about 15 minutes.

 

I then added some 三鲜馄饨 - sān xiān hún tún which my friend and I made about two weeks ago and froze (actually I just chopped - she did the rest.) 三鲜 means 'three delicacies' - here pork, shiitake mushrooms and dried shrimp. 馄饨 - hún tún is what 95% of China calls what you probably know as wontons, the Cantonese term.

At the same time, threw in some leftover chayote shoots which I had bought for dinner last night. Gave them and the huntun about three minutes and Robert was your father's brother.

For the first bowl, I added black pepper. For the second, white. I decided the black gave more taste and the white more heat, so for bowl three I added both.

Woke up this morning symptomless, either down to the soup or to the hot toddy I had just before bedtime.

 

Ah-chooo!  Time for another!

 

Nearly forgot the picture. This was the first, black pepper bowl.

Edited January 16, 2017 by liuzhou (log)

[Anna N]

 

Gingery cabbage and shrimp soup (inspired by a similar soup on The Kitchn site. 

[HungryChris]

I had to go to the DMV this morning and my favorite sushi joint is right near by. They just pack soy sauce, but I like to kick it up with chopped shallots, a dash of rice wine vinegar, some sesame oil and sesame seeds. The beer is a double IPA called The Captain's Daughter. It's from a local RI brewery called Grey Sails Brewing. I stopped by recently for a few growler fills.

HC

 

 

Edited January 18, 2017 by HungryChris (log)

[Katie Meadow]

Today we had variation on a theme of latkes with apple sauce. I made Smitten Kitchen's potato kugel and served it with southern fried apples adapted from a recipe by Ronni Lundy. For my apples I used a bit of something called "Burnt Sugar Syrup" which I sent away for and totally love. 

[liuzhou]

 

Not exciting to look at, perhaps, but it's what I fancied.

Sardines on toast. Toasted sardines. Whatever. With the utterly requisite black pepper and green Tabasco sauce. Accept no substitutes.

 

One of three slices.

[spaghetttti]

Right out of the oven: steaming, bubbly hot penne in meat sauce...comfort food, especially when you're home alone 

[shain]

Quick pasta with crisp and charred stir fried zucchini, lemon zest, thyme, EVOO, a little chili and lemon juice.

[Okanagancook]

Part of lunch yesterday.  Shaved fennel and celery salad from Vegetable Literacy.  Dressed with lemon olive oil and a mix of chopped egg and herbs.  Very fresh tasting.

[Anna N]

 

Leftover beef curry to which I added some chopped up baby tomatoes, a glug or two of cream and lots of fresh spinach. 

[liuzhou]

I was returning from down town at noon, wondering what to have for lunch, and dropped in to the small 'mom and pop' place immediately below my apartment to pick up a couple of beers for later. The woman handed me this, as she does every year just before the Chinese New Year.

 

 

A zongzi or steamed sticky rice dumpling.  ( 粽子 - zòngzi). She and her husband, her mother, her sister and her daughter-in-law all sit making these for days around this time of year.) 

It's a couple of bamboo leaves enclosing a pillow of sticky rice which in turn encloses a stuffing of mainly pork (meat and fat) and salted duck egg.

 

 

Interestingly, the stuffing is what is usually found here in southern China, but her wrapping style is more like northern China. not sure why.

The thing weighed 454 g and it is very filling. I managed about a third, then had to open one of the beers to wash it down.

[chromedome]

There's a Chinese restaurant up the road in Fredericton that sets those out on its buffet. My late California-bred wife didn't know what they were called either, so we just referred to them as "Chinese tamales."   

[liuzhou]

42 minutes ago, chromedome said:

There's a Chinese restaurant up the road in Fredericton that sets those out on its buffet. My late California-bred wife didn't know what they were called either, so we just referred to them as "Chinese tamales."   

 

Yeah. I've heard that description, but the first time I had to look up what tamales might be!

They are close if not identical.

Edited January 20, 2017 by liuzhou (log)

[chromedome]

Yeah, it's more of a broad analogy than an equivalency. 

[IowaDee]

Making tamales is often a big family tradition  on Christmas Eve among Latinos.  They get some pretty amazing assembly lines going and end up with a mountain of tamales in no time.  Good Eats.

[Shelby]

7 hours ago, liuzhou said:

I was returning from down town at noon, wondering what to have for lunch, and dropped in to the small 'mom and pop' place immediately below my apartment to pick up a couple of beers for later. The woman handed me this, as she does every year just before the Chinese New Year.

 

 

A zongzi or steamed sticky rice dumpling.  ( 粽子 - zòngzi). She and her husband, her mother, her sister and her daughter-in-law all sit making these for days around this time of year.) 

It's a couple of bamboo leaves enclosing a pillow of sticky rice which in turn encloses a stuffing of mainly pork (meat and fat) and salted duck egg.

 

 

Interestingly, the stuffing is what is usually found here in southern China, but her wrapping style is more like northern China. not sure why.

The thing weighed 454 g and it is very filling. I managed about a third, then had to open one of the beers to wash it down.

This. I. Want.  

[Anna N]

 

Leftover mince on noodles with a sprinkling of cheese.

[shain]

I bought fatayer flat breads and a warm salad of wild mallow ("chubeza") pan fried with onions and olive oil.

The fatyer is made with a yeasted dough, stretched thin and laminated with olive oil, then filled with chopped zaatar (fresh leaves, not spice mixture), spinach and chard. It is then grilled over a very hot saj "oven" (more like a wood fired curved griddle).

Served with sliced veggies and labneh with zaatar.

[chefmd]

Swordfish with pan roasted mushrooms 

Swordfish with pan roasted button mushrooms

[sartoric]

A traditional Chettinad thali at Chindarabam Villas. Served on a banana leaf, eight kinds of vegetables, a whole fish, chicken in gravy, three rices, pappad, chutney, pickles, soup in a silver cup. Four waiters, (for two of us) who watched us eat, standing directly in front of us, maybe a meter away. 

 

 

[shain]

Eggplant slices, brushed with olive oil and baked. It works great in sandwiches and in a pita (like sabich), but my favorite is when served warm, drizzled with lemony tahini and some cumin. Nothing else to distract from the eggplant's flavor.

[blue_dolphin]

Beautiful meal, @sartoric!  I am ever so impressed with my Indian friends' ability to neatly dine without utensils as compared with my own tendency to get everything all over my fingers.  Thankfully, my friends avert their eyes but I would be appalled to be observed by 4 waiters

Edited January 22, 2017 by blue_dolphin (log)

[sartoric]

1 hour ago, blue_dolphin said:

Beautiful meal, @sartoric!  I am ever so impressed with my Indian friends' ability to neatly dine without utensils as compared with my own tendency to get everything all over my fingers.  Thankfully, my friends avert their eyes but I would be appalled to be observed by 4 waiters

 

That's funny, they did give us a fork, and it was still unnerving. A few days ago we shared thalis with a 60 year old guide we had hired. He had food up to the third knuckle on all fingers....here's the meal. Incredibly cheap, about $5 for three of us.

 

[BonVivant]

First I ate the oysters then I cleaned the scallops. Almost 2kg, all with roe intact and carefully selected by yours truly.

 

Steamed with mung bean noodles.

 

Made sauce with Sichuan chillis in oil, sesame oil, tamari, grated ginger and garlic.

 

---

Dinner leftovers became lunch. (Roe, octopus and seaweed.)