Dinner 2017 (Part 1)

[liuzhou]

My dinner tonight was exactly the same as my dinner last night. I had re-heated leftovers.

I will go shopping tomorrow no matter what, but today was cold, wet and miserable.

[kayb]

On 1/16/2017 at 6:00 PM, Tri2Cook said:

Beef Paprikas, boiled potatoes and cucumber dill salad in all of it's uncalculated pile-it-on-the-plate-and-munch glory...

 

Tri2Cook, I dearly love paprikash, but have never found a recipe I like to make it at home. Could you share one? This looks lovely.

 

17 hours ago, shain said:

Cannelloni filled with sweet potato, and two types of goat cheese (one similar to cream cheese and the other feta), sage, caramelized onions, nutmeg, a little chilli, chives.

Baked covered in a bechamel with pecorino (so I guess calling it a thin mornay is more correct) nutmeg and black pepper.

 

 

 

 

 

Dear Sweet Baby Jesus. That looks absolutely marvelous, and I could cheerfully dive right into it.

 

As someone who has never made her own pasta, beyond gnocchi, I have occasionally cheated by using egg roll/won ton wrappers to make ravioli, tortellini and such. I did ravioli with a somewhat similar filling once -- butternut squash and goat cheese -- boiled it and then pan-fried them crisp, before drizzling with a brown butter/sage sauce. Very good, but labor-intensive.

 

[scubadoo97]

Ann, dusted with Wondra and pan fried in a splash of oil

[robirdstx]

 

Beef and Black Bean Soft Taco with Guacamole, Cheese, Onion, Tomato, Cilantro and Taco Sauce

[Ann_T]

Thanks Scubadoo.

 

Last night's dinner.

 

[Porthos]

Sauerbraten with spätzle.

 

 

Years ago we bought a spätzlehobel and it makes preparing spätzle so easy.

 

[Thanks for the Crepes]

I made a smaller casserole than usual of scalloped potatoes, which were excellent as always, but I still have a serving or two left over. This is not a bad thing. I love scalloped potatoes. This was served with a ground chuck burger with no accompaniments except its luscious med rare juices and salt and pepper. Frozen ground chuck burgers are good for a single person. Quick to thaw and no waste. So good too.

 

Green stuff will come tomorrow, unless you count the limes I used in my Coronas, and the scallions in the scalloped potatoes. 

[BonVivant]

4 hours ago, Porthos said:

Years ago we bought a spätzlehobel and it makes preparing spätzle so easy.

 

 

Got mine in Hungary a couple of weeks ago. The Hungarian version is simpler, flimsier and 1/3 the price (it's right next to the German made like yours). The holes have a slightly different design. Works great but next time I'll get the German one as well.

 

 

I use the recipe in this book.

 

[Anna N]

@Porthos and @BonVivant

 

 I do not remember ever having spätzle but after watching it being made on a TV program, I became quite intrigued. But before I buy another kitchen toy that will get used once and then just occupy space, I think I might try using the colander and spatula method. It does look very appetizing. 

[liuzhou]

Tonight. Cod and prawns in a spicy tomato sauce. With rice.

 

 

I went back for seconds.

 

Edited January 19, 2017 by liuzhou (log)

[chromedome]

1 hour ago, Anna N said:

@Porthos and @BonVivant

 

 I do not remember ever having spätzle but after watching it being made on a TV program, I became quite intrigued. But before I buy another kitchen toy that will get used once and then just occupy space, I think I might try using the colander and spatula method. It does look very appetizing. 

You need a colander with fairly large holes to make it work properly. If the bits of batter dropping into the water are too small, I find they tend to just disperse and give you starchy water. 

 

An alternative is to pipe from a bag through a small tip. I found that worked better, so it's the method I used until I got the proper tool for the job (mine's a round plastic one, sized to fit on top of the pot, and you use a flexible scraper to force the batter through). You can also just cut the batter off a cutting board, but I never really got the hang of that technique. 

[suzilightning]

2 hours ago, Anna N said:

@Porthos and @BonVivant

 

 I do not remember ever having spätzle but after watching it being made on a TV program, I became quite intrigued. But before I buy another kitchen toy that will get used once and then just occupy space, I think I might try using the colander and spatula method. It does look very appetizing. 

or do as Johnnybird's grandmother did ... and taught me to do ... use a knife, a wooden cutting board and a pot of boiling water,  She would plop some dough on the cutting board she had wet with some water, shave off small noodles with the knife she had dipped into the boiling water into the pot.......fish out with a spider when done and shock in some ice water.  Reheat in a pan with some butter.

[Ann_T]

I love spaetzle.   Should make it more often.   I have the spaetzle maker as Porthos.

 

Last night's dinner.

Smoked salmon on homemade rye bread.

[Porthos]

The spätzle recipe we use comes from this cookbook we bought in Germny in 1980. My DW has a BA in German, I only know a word here or there.

 

[Okanagancook]

I bought one of these at a German store many, many moons ago.  It doubles as a potato ricer.  It requires some muscle to plunge the dough out of the holes and it is a two person job....one with the muscle and the other to cut off the extrusion as it emerges.  I have also done the wooden board trick mentioned above that that works well but you need to move quickly so they all get done at the same time.

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

4 minutes ago, Okanagancook said:

I bought one of these at a German store many, many moons ago.  It doubles as a potato ricer.  It requires some muscle to plunge the dough out of the holes and it is a two person job....one with the muscle and the other to cut off the extrusion as it emerges.  I have also done the wooden board trick mentioned above that that works well but you need to move quickly so they all get done at the same time.

 

 

Interesting timing that this topic should come up!  A couple days before we started talking about spaetzle I ordered myself one of these:

 

http://www.wmf.com/en/potato-masher-0610809990.html

 

 

Eons ago I had a cast aluminum spaetzle press that went the way of all aluminum food surfaces in this house.

 

[ElainaA]

This thread makes me very hungry. Heck, this whole site makes me hungry.

 

Last night's dinner: Venison back strap (a gift from a hunter friend) (which fell out of the freezer on my feet) that I marinated in red wine, lemon juice, juniper berries, thyme, garlic and olive oil then seared quickly per @Shelby and my mother. With Deborah Madison's 5 minute beets (golden beets) and roasted potatoes. When we ate at the CIA last month I had venison served with guava gelee and cherry sauce. I couldn't manage the guava but I simmered some dried cherries in water and lemon juice, drained them and seasoned them with coriander, cinnamon, a dash of cayenne and a little butter. They made a very good accompaniment to the venison.

When my husband came home last night there were 5 deer in our driveway - he thought they might have heard about our dinner menu and were staging a protest. 

[kayb]

My dinner last night, per @Anna N's freezer challenge:

 

 

Pulled pork enchiladas, Mexican(ish) rice, an extra tortilla with melted cheese and powdered pico de gallo seasoning, toasted in the CSO. Sort of a cheese tostada.

 

It needed some greenery, but I had none in the house and didn't want to bother to go get any.

 

[BonVivant]

10 hours ago, Anna N said:

@Porthos and @BonVivant

 

 I do not remember ever having spätzle but after watching it being made on a TV program, I became quite intrigued. But before I buy another kitchen toy that will get used once and then just occupy space, I think I might try using the colander and spatula method. It does look very appetizing. 

 

I have only tried the hand-cut method... very time consuming. From what I've read the pushing through a collander method is the worst. Now with this Hungarian dumpling maker it's ridiculously easy and fast.

 

I also eat store-bought dried Spätzle once a week, but it's a different kind, more like cut up pasta in terms of shape. But now I can make other Spätzle based dishes with the new maker. Leftover Spätzle is even better fried in lard or with Speck (cured smoked bacon) til a bit crispy.

 

Hungarians eat a lot of dumplings and pasta. The same dumplings are usually eaten with something saucy, like this one, but can also be in soup or as a side.

 

It was in Budapest.

 

[Paul Bacino]

White Tuna / Pickled Diakon/ Carrot / Chili Paste/ Shisho Leaves

 

[Porthos]

There are 2 fundamental styles of making spätzle. Hand-cut uses a stiffer dough whereas a thinner batter is used with a spätzlehobel.  Hand-cut seems labor-intensive and has never interested me.

Edited January 19, 2017 by Porthos
Typo (log)

[Captain]

Corned Beef and some Veg.

 

[mgaretz]

Night before last an old friend came over for dinner and I made SV tri-tip, mashed cauliflower and salad.  No pics.

 

Last night we had SV salmon.  It was cooked for 40 minutes at 122F and then basted with a honey-orange juice glaze, torch seared then rebasted.  It kinda fell apart on the way from the bag to the searing station.  Served with mixed veggies.

 

[Kim Shook]

I have been away for some time dealing with family health issues, but I’ve spent the past few days catching up on my favorite threads Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner!  As always, I’m impressed and inspired by the food here at eG.  I’ve been cooking very little the last few months and not cataloging or photographing what I DO cook, so I don’t have much to contribute yet!  Before Christmas I bought myself an electric skillet.  I’ve wanted one for a while now.  I love to make fried things, but have a problem maintaining temperature in a frying pan.  It was on sale and very cheap, so I jumped at it.  My first experiment was dinner the other night.  Fried chicken – by my regular recipe: 24 hour buttermilk soak, drained then rubbed with a spice rub that includes Sazon, Accent, pepper and unsweetened lemonade powder (!!!):

 

Also liver (cook’s treat – no one else here likes it), whipped potatoes w/ gravy and butter beans.  I really like using the skillet a lot – looking forward to trying fish and chips!  And it was nice to be cooking again.

[Smithy]

How did you like the texture and doneness of the salmon, @mgaretz? I'm always on the alert for more ways to do salmon - my favorite fish, but not my darling's unless it's done certain ways.