Dinner 2016 (Part 11)

[HungryChris]

The last corned beef from St. Patty day sales came out of the freezer yesterday and made its way to the table tonight. Ninety minutes in the IP, 10 minute PR, the veggies go into the cooking liquids for 3 min and pressure release. A mini St Patty day in December was a good thing.

HC

Edited December 18, 2016 by HungryChris (log)

[liuzhou]

@sartoric et al. I woke up this morning with mangoes on my mind and remembered that I had printed out the article where I found the mango relish recipe. I still can't find that printout, but I remembered also that my printer at home was dead at the time and so I had printed it in the office. This meant I copied the file to a thumb drive to take to the office. Only question was which one - I have dozens. Miraculously, I found the article on the first drive I tried. 

 

Then, I was able to search for a distinctive phrase from the article and eureka, I found it!

 

Which is a long story to tell you where it came from and to give credit to Thomasina Miers, whose recipe it is.

She also gives some other interesting mango recipes in the same article.

Edited December 18, 2016 by liuzhou (log)

[dcarch]

Made Hollandaise sauce using sous vide. Sous vide is the perfect method for making Hollandaise. It allows perfect temperature for 100% food safety without cooking the eggs into scrambled eggs and not too cold that the sauce would break.

Got some nice flounder filet, on napa cabbage to go with the Hollandaise color. Homegrown Oyster mushroom for aroma, and black garlic sauce to counter the sauce’s acidity.

Plating was a mess, because everyone was dipping their bread into the sauce. Still, plated the dish on a chrome plate. 
Chrome plate? Why? Because ------
There is no plate like chrome for the Hollandaise. 

Happy Holidays to you all!

 dcarch

Edited December 18, 2016 by dcarch (log)

[daveb]

10 minutes ago, dcarch said:

There is no plate like chrome for the Hollandaise. 

 

Not sure if I should report that or go shopping for some chrome plates.  

 

I've not done a sauce SV (yet).  Are the air bubbles a function of the technique or the handling?

[Dejah]

7 hours ago, Anna N said:

You really haven't lived until you've had hot toast spread with beef dripping and seasoned generously with salt and pepper (IMO).

I always get big slabs of beef fat when I order roasts. This is rendered and kept in a sealer jar, for yorkies AND for deep frying  fish 'n' chips. The flavour can't be beat. Then there's the crispy bits left in the pan after the fat is drained off...A sprinkle of sea salt and num...NUM...!
I haven't had duck fat...something that must be remedied.
 

[Dejah]

Made up a batch of beef filling for my Moroccan Spiced Cigars. They'll be rolled in phyllo pastry tomorrow and into the freezer for Xmas parties.

Took out 1/3 of the filling and made it into Moussaka for supper. We first had this dish while on our first musical tour in England in 1976. Every night, after our gigs, we'd head for either an East Indian or Greek restaurant. These were the only establishments open after 11:00 PM. Food was cheap, so this was where entertainers, musicians, strippers went "after work". Moussaka was usually ground lamb, served with lovely chips and peas.
Tonight, we appreciated the extra warmth in the kitchen with the -32C  (windchill -41C ) temperatures outside.
Buttered Panko crumbs on top of the bechamel sauce.

                   

I love the eggplant, but hubby is not keen. He had leftover corn and taters cooked in foil. I had the green beans and tomato wedges.

              

[liuzhou]

Quote

I haven't had duck fat...something that must be remedied.

 

Indeed it must. Duck fat roast potatoes are sublime.

[scubadoo97]

3 hours ago, liuzhou said:

 

Indeed it must. Duck fat roast potatoes are sublime.

 

Totally agree.  

Last night I took a SV'd bag of two leg qts. out of the fridge.  Removed all the solidified fat and coated a bowl full of diced potatoes.   Roasted those off in the oven and crisped up the duck stove top.  A dish that's always worth repeating 

 

[Shelby]

Thawed out a venison roast and made stew last night.

 

[liuzhou]

Dinner tonight was a bit of thing of threads and patches. Mainly due to my chaotic shopping this morning. I had a firm plan, but when I got there, the cupboard was bare. They didn't have what I wanted. So I shopped at random.

 

I spotted an odd looking squash thing. It was labelled in the Chinese for "pumpkin" (南瓜 - nán guā), but didn't resemble the normal pumpkins we get. Not normal is right up my street so I bought it. It was kind of flat, as if someone had sat on it for its entire infancy and adolescence.

 

Inside, however, it looked pumpkinish. So, I de-seeded it, de-skinned it and de-cidely soupified it. An onion, some curry powder, salt and pepper and vegetable stock. Blitzed in the blitzer. I also washed, dried and roasted the seeds, a few of which went into the soup. Served with crusty baguette. (I did buy cream to add but decided it didn't need it.)

 

 

 

This was followed by a plate of salmon sashimi with Chinese sea grass (中华海草 - zhōng huá hǎi cǎo) and a soy sauce dip. I like me some sea grass.

 

Then I went on to a plate of half a dozen raw oysters which I had fun shucking. The more mathematically literate among you may notice that, in my small world of today, half-a-dozen meant 5. I did buy the more accepted half dozen amount of six, but one proved to have a bit of an alien whiff, which I hadn't detected in the market, so it was dumped. The others were fat, juicy and perfect.

 

Finally (almost), I partook of some mussels and spaghetti. All the mussels opened. They were cooked with olive oil, osmanthus flavoured rice wine, garlic, chilli and scallions.

 

 

In the final end, I ate two Hong Kong style egg tarts which I greedily demolished before pointing the camera.

Edited December 18, 2016 by liuzhou (log)

[sartoric]

I roasted a duck, my first ever roast Daffy. Taking advice from here, I dried him uncovered in the fridge overnight, then stuffed a handful  of thyme, a slice of orange and crushed garlic in the cavity. Served with roasted potatoes, parsnips and pumpkin, plus a gravy made from pan juices and a few morello cherries.

 

[gfweb]

Flap (bavette) steak (cooked SV to 130 x 2 hrs) in a mushroom/mustard cream sauce with fried polenta and arugula

 

 

 

Duck confit glazed with reduced balsamic over braised kale,  and diced potatoes and sweet potatoes.

 

[Anna N]

 

 Baked potato with sour cream, Hawaiian salt and scallions. I ate the filling, as adults do, with a fork and then, like a child, picked up the empty, crispy shells and tore into them with abandon. When you are old and decrepit and fuelled by a glass of wine it's as close as you come to debauchery.

[BeeZee]

@Anna N debauchery would be spreading those emptied tater shells with butter, then eating. Not that I would know anything about that...

[Shelby]

45 minutes ago, gfweb said:

Flap (bavette) steak (cooked SV to 130 x 2 hrs) in a mushroom/mustard cream sauce with fried polenta and arugula

 

 

 

Duck confit glazed with reduced balsamic over braised kale,  and diced potatoes and sweet potatoes.

 

WANT

[Tri2Cook]

Had Cajun bbq shrimp last weekend and enjoyed it so much that I decided to stick with the Cajun theme again this weekend. Very cold and windy today (-32 C with -41 wind chill this morning) so something cooking all day long and filling the house with good smells seemed in order. Went with red beans and rice. I used a good semi-local spicy, smoky sausage (can't get real andouille here and the weather is no longer conducive to using my smoker so I couldn't make my own) and homemade pickled pork. Not the best picture, got a little carried away with the flash it seems, but it's tasty...

[ElsieD]

I got this recipe from The Washington Post.  It came from Dorie Greenspan and is called Quick-Cook Honey Mustard Pork.  I roasted potatoes and carrots in duck fat to go with it but my timing was a bit off so they were a bit overcooked.  The pork was good, though.

[scubadoo97]

2 hours ago, Shelby said:

WANT

Me too!!!

[JoNorvelleWalker]

7 hours ago, sartoric said:

I roasted a duck, my first ever roast Daffy. Taking advice from here, I dried him uncovered in the fridge overnight, then stuffed a handful  of thyme, a slice of orange and crushed garlic in the cavity. Served with roasted potatoes, parsnips and pumpkin, plus a gravy made from pan juices and a few morello cherries.

 

 

You have more refrigerator space than I do.

 

[sartoric]

@JoNorvelleWalker, like many Aussies we have a drinks fridge (downstairs in the laundry). Easy to free up space by removing something (in this case 2 six packs of cider), plus the freezer comes in handy for stock and stuff. There is nothing worse than lukewarm drinks that should be cold, warm beer is the worst

[JoNorvelleWalker]

24 minutes ago, sartoric said:

@JoNorvelleWalker, like many Aussies we have a drinks fridge (downstairs in the laundry). Easy to free up space by removing something (in this case 2 six packs of cider), plus the freezer comes in handy for stock and stuff. There is nothing worse than lukewarm drinks that should be cold, warm beer is the worst

 

I envy you.  And I wouldn't mind having a laundry either.  For my laundry I have to carry my clothes down a flight of stairs, walk to another building, then down more stairs.*  If I'm lucky.  Then half the time someone takes my clothes out of dryer before they're ready.

 

But at least we don't have giant spiders and unmarbled beef.**

 

 

*Not to mention in the snow or rain.

 

**Seriously, Australian strip steaks were on sale here last week for $1.99 a pound.  I looked but did not buy.

 

[Thanks for the Crepes]

A few weeks ago, I bought some chuck "Denver" steaks that seemed to be so well marbled, although they had been trimmed of all outside hard white fat layer. They were small and seemed perfect for a single person.

 

It was cold and rainy here, (as it is now) so instead of giving them their best chance to shine over charcoal, I did the second best thing for them I know, which was to take them to med rare in my trusty Wagner cast iron skillet. I cooked up the first two this way, planning to eat the second very small one the next day sliced into a delicious sandwich. Wow! were these $5.99 a pound things tough. I mean to the point where I tried to cut the larger one on my plate, and had the knife slipping and knocking stuff off the plate. I just couldn't face the second one destined for a sandwich, and threw it and the remains of the larger one to the raccoons from the front porch. Oh, I usually don't mind a little toughness out of chuck, but these has no flavor either. 

 

The third piece had been frozen, and I took it out to thaw, determined that more good money would not be wasted. I sliced in into about 3/4" chunks (with effort, because it was tough raw too) coated it first with seasoned meat tenderizer and very fragrant black pepper. Then I tossed it around with a little flour to coat and browned it off in a bit of oil. I would have liked to have used rendered beef fat, but there was none to be had from the cut I had to work with.

 

Then I fished out the crusty beef, drained off almost all the oil, and stirred in some diced onion to deglaze the pan, soften and brown the onion a tad. Next, I added water, cranberry juice, half a Knorr Caldo de Res cube, a crushed garlic clove and a little soy sauce. Here is one of the few instances where I add soy for a long cook, and I always brighten it up with more soy nearer the end after tasting the broth. I added the beef back and let that simmer for about thirty minutes.

 

Then I added about half the sliced celery and let that go for maybe another twenty. Meanwhile, I peeled half a large carrot, sliced that up and added that with the rest of the celery. That was coming back to a boil while I was dicing very finely a couple of Roma tomatoes. They were unpeeled, and while I don't mind, or even notice the peels when they are very small, large pieces of peel after the tomatoes break down don't appeal to me.

 

I guess my stew went about an hour and a half in total. I thought about adding potatoes but did not because I wanted most of the carbs to come from a beautiful, if pricey, artisan Italian rustic bread I'm trying to eat up before the coons get that too.

 

This treatment rendered the beef sold as "Great for the Grill!" edible to me. Finally, all that connective tissue had been tamed, and was quite tasty. I ate all the meat and carrots, but I think I overdid it with the celery and didn't finish all of that. I did manage 4 slices of this wonderful, crusty bread with a wide-open soft crumb. It's only a 24 ounce loaf, but is one of the largest elongated boules I have ever seen!

 

Also, I picked up a bone-in ribeye steak (my favorite cut) for the same $5.99/lb the other day. It has been consigned to the freezer only until the weather cooperates to allow the charcoal treatment to bring out its best qualities. 

[sartoric]

1 hour ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

I envy you.  And I wouldn't mind having a laundry either.  For my laundry I have to carry my clothes down a flight of stairs, walk to another building, then down more stairs.*  If I'm lucky.  Then half the time someone takes my clothes out of dryer before they're ready.

 

But at least we don't have giant spiders and unmarbled beef.**

 

 

*Not to mention in the snow or rain.

 

**Seriously, Australian strip steaks were on sale here last week for $1.99 a pound.  I looked but did not buy.

 

 Whaddya expect for $1.99 a pound ?

I can't buy any beef here for less than $5 a pound, either marbled or granite finish..

Spiders are no biggie. They're scaredy cats who run away mostly, and we are MUCH bigger !

[Shelby]

Ronnie got a couple of Canadian Geese the other day.  'Course, I made him keep the hearts and livers so along with those I fried the tenders off of the breasts (also had some chicken gizzards)

 

Tenders are at the top on the left.

 

I also pressure cooked the legs for an hour and a half.  I am going to shred them and give the meat to the doggies and kitties......they turned out so tender that we ended up snacking on some of them before dinner.  Soooo, these might actually turn into goose and noodles to eat on the first day of winter.

 

 

 

 

Edited December 19, 2016 by Shelby (log)

[liuzhou]

Simple but good.

 

Pork kidney with garlic and chilli. Shanghai baicai (上海白菜 - shàng hǎi bái cài*) aka baby Bok Choy with oyster sauce, Rice.