Dinner 2016 (Part 11)

[suzilightning]

dinner salad with red onion, blue cheese and some tomatoes.....to complement the queso with corn chips while snacking.

 

last night stopped by a local place that has started a Fat Thursday dinner - had a cup of andouille and crawfish gumbo and there was okra in it!!!!!!!!

now if Chef Ken would only do some tasso and shrimp and some fried okra I would be a happy camper.

still a little hungry so when I got back I had a bit of ground bison, peppers and onions left from making smooch for John so added a bit of some bbq sauce and popped it on a whole wheat bun for a sloppy(non NJ)joe.

[robirdstx]

 

That Polar Vortex has reached the Houston area, making it feel a lot more like the Holiday season I grew up with in St. Louis. Time for a hearty, warming dinner - Hong Kong-Style Chicken and Vegetable Curry, served with Naan.

Edited December 10, 2016 by robirdstx (log)

[liuzhou]

Dinner last night was this thick soup .  For more information see the soup topic here.

 

[HungryChris]

Baked stuffed shrimp, one of Deb's favorites, and I aim to please.

HC

[liamsaunt]

rice bowl with tuna, snap peas, and baby bok choy

 

[scubadoo97]

One of my wife's favorite dinners.   Seared tuna rice bowl

[Ashen]

HungryChris-  Whenever I see one of your pictures that doesn't have Crystal hs on the table it always throws me for a second searching for it .. lol..   One of these days I am going to track down a bottle of it.   

[Anna N]

18 minutes ago, Ashen said:

HungryChris-  Whenever I see one of your pictures that doesn't have Crystal hs on the table it always throws me for a second searching for it .. lol..   One of these days I am going to track down a bottle of it.   

Me too! 

[HungryChris]

57 minutes ago, Ashen said:

HungryChris-  Whenever I see one of your pictures that doesn't have Crystal hs on the table it always throws me for a second searching for it .. lol..   One of these days I am going to track down a bottle of it.   

It is interesting that I first read about Crystal hot sauce here on eg. There were such raves about it that I had to try it. Unfortunately that was just about the time the factory was destroyed by Katrina and I was out of luck and pretty much forgot about it. Then a few years ago we visited New Orleans and we had char grilled oysters and fried green tomatoes at Superior Seafood on St. Charles Ave and I happened to spot a bottle of it on the table and the rest is history. I think Deb liked it as much as I did. I brought a few bottles home and watched our supply slowly dwindle with great concern. One day I happened upon it at a local supermarket and celebrated that very night with char grilled oysters and fried green tomatoes. I always keep a few bottles in the pantry to stave off panic attacks.

HC

[sartoric]

Roast beef with Yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes, pumpkin and parsnips, buttery garlic silverbeet and gravy.

Restored my faith in roast beef this did.

 

[rotuts]

@sartoric  

 

Im just dying and drooling here that looks so delicious.  Id gobble that right up tonight

 

Turkey Ragu here tonight  ( IP'd )   still very good

 

but not quit the above  

Edited December 10, 2016 by rotuts (log)

[Dejah]

@Anna N I love watercress. No Asian grocery stores nearby? I often find it at our Superstore. Was so mad at myself when we were in Winnipeg. Picked up 3 beautiful big bunches and left them in a bag with canned goods...2 days later, I remembered and they were brown... I usually buy some for soup and some used like lettuce in a sandwich - lovely bite.
Cold snap (-30C, windchill of -41C) hit the prairies after the big dump of snow, so more comfort food was needed.

Beef Stroganoff over noodles with liberal sprinkle of smoked paprika and peri-peri powder. Can't have too much heat with these temperatures!

                 

 

 

[Anna N]

@Dejah

Not very often that I get to an Asian store. This was just a supermarket find. Anxious to have it in a sandwich. 

Edited December 10, 2016 by Anna N (log)

[scubadoo97]

Not really sure "what's for dinner".   Started the morning tossing a couple of duck leg quarters in the SV bath after salting them for at least a day.   These will be used for duck confit in the near future.   Currently rendering all the skin from the duck and nibbling  on cracklings.  Pressure cooked duck stock is cooling in the sink.  The liver was a lunch snack.  

 

I also have a side of Steelhead trout on the smoker finishing up at the moment and a few packs of "fresh" pasta from Aldi in the fridge .   My wife invited her brother over for dinner and I'm still unsure exactly what's for dinner.  

Edited December 10, 2016 by scubadoo97
Spelling (log)

[Anna N]

 

Duck and orange salad with watercress, radicchio, hazelnuts.....

[Okanagancook]

Anna N, very 'cheffy' looking. 

[Anna N]

23 minutes ago, Okanagancook said:

Anna N, very 'cheffy' looking. 

 I am becoming quite concerned.   Perhaps it's something I'm drinking.

[Thanks for the Crepes]

I had a pork chop thawed for tonight's protein, but a look at @Dejah's beef stroganoff above changed my mind. The pork chop could wait until tomorrow.

 

I took a ground chuck patty out of the freezer, and by the time I had prepped everything for the stroganoff and a side of broccoli and cheddar, it was thawed. I usually make this dish with hand sliced sirloin, but it was delicious with the ground chuck. I should have peeked back at her photo before serving, because it looks like it was dusted with paprika, and I think that would have been brilliant. The recipe I was following was for four servings, but the math was pretty easy to scale back to a single one.

 

I needed to use the rest of the mushrooms I bought for pizza today or tomorrow latest and was blank in the inspiration department, so thanks Dejah! 

[ElainaA]

We are just back from a quick trip to Hyde Park which included two nights at the Culinary Institute of America. Sadly not a lot of pictures and those i have are not great.

Thursday night we ate at Ristorante Caterina de Medici.  We were told by the hostess at out B&B that this restaurant is the first placement for students so they are less experienced and the service might not be perfect. Our waiter was just fine but we did watch a faculty member  having another student change the tablecloth on an empty table four times until she got it right. 

My meal: I started with pumpkin cappellacci with pumpkin seeds, parmegiano reggiano, butter and sage. Lovely. The pumpkin seeds gave a really nice texture.

 My husband had orecchiette with broccoli rabe, garlic and anchovies. (Sorry - the picture is terrible.)

 

Next, I had a salad of baby greens with a mustard dressing, He had a radicchio salad with endive, grapes and walnuts.

We had the same main plate - venison loin with grappa sauce, a garnish of cauliflower and guava gel and a potato and turnip gratin.

 We shared dessert: A gianduia mousee with coca crumbs, caramel sauce and cape gooseberries. I stopped myself from licking the plate. Just barely.

 

Friday night we ate at American Bounty. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera and my husband didn't bring his phone so we have no pictures. Which is really sad as the presentations were gorgeous.  I started with a roasted beet and frisee salad with baby carrots (REALLy baby carrots not the fake kind), candied almonds and a tangerine emulsion. This was easily the best presentation of both nights and I am so sorry I do not have a picture. My husband started chestnut and wild mushroom ravioli with butternut squash, crispy shallots, sage and cream.

My main plate was breast of duck with mission figs, salsify, sassafras and pine nut spinach. I wish there had been more figs but other wise it was fine.

Barney's main plate was pork tenderloin with kaboucha, freekeh tabbouleh and blood orange gel. we again shared a dessert - pressed apple - which was baked rectangles of thinly sliced apples, with smoked maple ice cream, gingerbread crumbs and caramel. Everything was good but the ice cream was absolutely amazing. 

 

Perhaps the most interesting part of the evening came after we finished eating on Friday and started talking with our waiter. All the kitchen have glass walls onto the dining rooms and we were seated immediately in front of the pastry chefs area in American Bounty. My husband is a plumbing/HVAC contractor who has done HVAC in multiple restaurants so of course he asked about temperature control - and off we went. He ended up getting a tour of the the kitchen and an inspection of it's HVAC system. The entire kitchen was donated 2-3 years ago by Hobart and to say that it is top of the line is an under statement. The pastry area (they called it the 'pastry bubble') is kept cooler than the rest of the kitchen - although there is no physical barrier. (He told us how much cooler but what I remember is 25 degrees and that is clearly wrong.)The cooking line - with at least 25 burners and I am not sure how many ovens - is kept at a steady 68 degrees F. The pastry oven has a USB port that connects directly to the factory in Germany to be used if there are any problems. No one but the pastry chefs are allowed to touch the controls. 

We were also told that the Bakery/Cafe (which was not open when we were there) had 3 kitchens, each with their own temperature (the one for chocolate work being the coolest) which have negative air pressure, ensuring that if a door is opened air will only move from the cooler room to the warmer room not the other way around. 

My husband has installed HVAC systems for restaurant kitchens, research lab clean rooms and a surgical suite. He said this was very close to the surgical suite and way more complex than anything else.

I did ask our waiter if graduates used to this high tech kitchen would have trouble in the real world. He laughed  and said that the kitchen in the third restaurant, Bocuse, is purposely small, loud and cluttered so they all have to work in that environment also.

We had a great time. Next time it has to be Bocuse....

 

Edited December 11, 2016 by ElainaA (log)

[kayb]

It was a busy Saturday -- finally got the Christmas tree and wreaths up! -- so what I managed for dinner was this:

 

 

A couple of slices of the Buttermilk Quick Bread, with an addition of cheese and bacon, posted by @Anna N recently, with a couple of leftover deviled egg halves. The bread was good, but I wish I'd cut back on the sugar for the savory version.

[liuzhou]

This has been on my mind for a couple of days and today I got round to making it.

 

Cod with capers, lemon juice and red chillis. Puréed broccoli, white chilli and garlic . Buttery new potatoes.

 

 

 

Couldn't decide which picture to post, so you get two.

[HungryChris]

Linguine with clam sauce and garlic toast.

HC

 

[chromedome]

10 hours ago, ElainaA said:

I did ask our waiter if graduates used to this high tech kitchen would have trouble in the real world. He laughed  and said that the kitchen in the third restaurant, Bocuse, is purposely small, loud and cluttered so they all have to work in that environment also.

 

 

My class was the last to graduate before the kitchens at my school were extensively remodeled (I joked at the time that "Now I know what Martha was doing while she awaited sentencing..."). I'm sure the one at the CIA was more lavish by an order or two of magnitude, but this was still pretty impressive. 

 

I had the same comment for my former instructors, when I went back for a visit. When your school kitchen has as many Rational combi-ovens as most of the rest of the city put together, for example, going out into the real world and working with a cranky 40 year-old Garland has got to be something of a letdown. 

[liamsaunt]

My niece did not care for the menu last night, so she made herself some sushi.  Not to bad for a 15 year old:

 

 

The rest of us had roast chicken, gravy, mashed potatoes and brussel sprouts.  Nic comfort food for a freezing night.  Leftovers will be turned into soup for lunches this week.

 

[ninagluck]

this week I got a hare from my hunter, I deboned it and from the smaller pieces I made a ragout with red wine sauce, gnocchis and a parsnip. I find ragouts difficult to plate that they look nice, at least it tasted nice ;-)