Dinner 2017 (Part 2)

[sartoric]

Roast spatchcock, potatoes, beetroot and asparagus. Served with a sauce of sherry and pan juices.

 

[Kim Shook]

Shelby – thanks so much for the link to the beef and broccoli recipe!  Hope to try it soon. 

 

Incredible meals, as always.  I am now craving scallops. 

 

 

I’ve been fighting the flu week, so my food has been a bit dull/store bought.  Before I got sick, I made some treats for a dinner-time meeting at church.  Cucumber sandwiches:

These had a cream cheese/chive and onion spread rather than butter.  The other thing I took in was just something I came up with out of my head:

 

Slices of a good, crusty baguette spread with butter and fig spread, topped with deli ham, Havarti and lightly dressed arugula.  Both items seemed to be very popular.

 

One night was a comfort food casserole:

 

With Durkee fried onion topping:

 

Inside:

This is a Tricia Yearwood casserole.  It is kind of like a cheeseburger and potato casserole.  Sliced red potatoes on the bottom and topped with a cheese-sauce and burger mixture.  I added a few things to up the flavor a bit and it was very nice.  Served with a salad:

 

Another night was spaghetti Bolognese (with Italian sausage rather than beef):

 

Night before last was grocery store ribs, Kraft Mac & cheese (with extra cheese and hot sauce), Jiffy corn muffins and collards (those WERE homemade and the pot likker was fantastic):

 

Feeling a little better yesterday, I wanted something tasty:

My own version of Chex mix.  And pizza from a local favorite!

[mm84321]

First of the season asparagus, sabayon

 

[Anna N]

@sartoric

 

 Lovely looking chicken. Makes my mouth water. But spatchcock?  Another case of the common language that divides us? I have always understood spatchcocking to mean  that the chicken is split down the back  and spreadeagled.   I stand to be corrected.

[blue_dolphin]

44 minutes ago, Anna N said:

@sartoric

 

 Lovely looking chicken. Makes my mouth water. But spatchcock?  Another case of the common language that divides us? I have always understood spatchcocking to mean  that the chicken is split down the back  and spreadeagled.   I stand to be corrected.

From the oracle:

Quote

Spatchcock

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A spatchcock is a historical term for a culled immature male chicken, but increasingly denotes a preparation technique...

 

So it seems that one could prepare a spatchcocked spatchcock 

[gfweb]

@shelby, for me to say Mexican food looks good is a HUGE accomplishment!  ; - )  Nice indeed

[Shelby]

9 minutes ago, gfweb said:

@shelby, for me to say Mexican food looks good is a HUGE accomplishment!  ; - )  Nice indeed

Thank you, kind sir!  What a great compliment!

[sartoric]

1 hour ago, Anna N said:

@sartoric

 

 Lovely looking chicken. Makes my mouth water. But spatchcock?  Another case of the common language that divides us? I have always understood spatchcocking to mean  that the chicken is split down the back  and spreadeagled.   I stand to be corrected.

@Anna N, the packaging is in the bin, but it definitely said spatchcock. Funnily enough, the packaging also recommended spatchcocking the birds ! Anyway, @blue_dolphinhas confirmed the terms use. They were yummy little suckers !

[Anna N]

 I am sure many of you are familiar with a Dutch baby. I was vaguely aware of them but not particularly interested since they seemed to be largely a vehicle for something incredibly sweet. Then sometime recently I ran across references to savoury Dutch babies and my ears perked up. So here is my first attempt at a Dutch baby. I followed a recipe from Dorie Greenspan which I believe I found in a Washington Post article. I combined what I learned there with something I found on a website that suggested sprinkling a good amount of cheese over the just poured batter.  The result resembled a giant gougere which I topped with salsa and sour cream. Wow!  

 

 

[Shelby]

10 minutes ago, Anna N said:

 I am sure many of you are familiar with a Dutch baby. I was vaguely aware of them but not particularly interested since they seemed to be largely a vehicle for something incredibly sweet. Then sometime recently I ran across references to savoury Dutch babies and my ears perked up. So here is my first attempt at a Dutch baby. I followed a recipe from Dorie Greenspan which I believe I found in a Washington Post article. I combined what I learned there with something I found on a website that suggested sprinkling a good amount of cheese over the just poured batter.  The result resembled a giant gougere which I topped with salsa and sour cream. Wow!  

 

 

Had to wipe the drool off of my keys to type this.  All sorts of possibilities with something like this......  Thinking Italian like mozz cheese and gravy.....or breakfasty with hollandaise sauce....

[liamsaunt]

@mm84321 that is a gorgeous bass, and some terrific looking asparagus too. Lucky you!

 

@Shelby, I had hatch chile (Ok from a can) enchiladas last night too.  Mine looked frankly awful, so no picture.  Yours looked great!

 

Tonight, the clean out the dregs of the fridge dinner: spaghetti with olives and roasted cherry tomatoes:

 

[C. sapidus]

Shrimp and fettucine with ancho - bourbon - cream sauce. Soak ancho chiles in hot water and blend with rice vinegar, garlic cloves, and Mexican oregano. Saute shrimp in butter until partly cooked, add bourbon, and light. Stir ("with caution") until flames die down, and then remove shrimp. Reduce sauce, add half-and-half and chile sauce, and simmer. Add shrimp, simmer until done, season to taste, and then toss with pasta.

 

The recipe was supposed to use tequila and lots of cream. I prefer tonight's semi-improvised version. Ancho chile flavor was front and center (as it should be), bourbon added a nice note, and the limited volume of half and half in the fridge enriched the sauce without muting flavors.

 

Edited March 3, 2017 by C. sapidus
Clarity (log)

[robirdstx]

 

I had the 

WOOD GRILLED FISH FILLET  (Cobia)

Garlic-mashed potatoes, roasted vegetables and boudreaux herb butter 

at Boudros on the San Antonio Riverwalk.

 

My lady friend had the 

HOUSE SMOKED JUMBO SHRIMP & GULF CRAB ENCHILADAS

Wrapped in spicy tomato pancakes, ancho chili sauce, queso fresco and creme fraiche, black beans and pecan rice pilaf 

 

 

[Smithy]

@robirdstx, we still haven't managed to put San Antonio on our route when we travel through Texas.  You're giving me extra incentive to change that.

[Ann_T]

 @liamsaunt  That pasta looks delicious.  I love olives cooked in the sauce.

 

Roast chicken for dinner tonight.

 

 Comfort food.

[Smithy]

Whenever I start seeing empty space in my refrigerator shelves, I start thinking about all the things I can't cook until I go shopping.  This topic, and the Challenge: cook your way through your freezer topic, help me see just how many things I CAN cook without going to the store.  The glass becomes half-full, thanks to your collective inspiration.  Thanks, folks. 

[liuzhou]

Re: Spatchcock. 

 

Quote

1785 Grose Dict. Vulgar T., Spatch cock, abbreviation of a dispatch cock, an Irish dish upon any sudden occasion. It is a hen just killed from the roost, or yard, and immediately skinned, split, and broiled.

OED

 

 

[scubadoo97]

1 hour ago, Smithy said:

Whenever I start seeing empty space in my refrigerator shelves, I start thinking about all the things I can't cook until I go shopping.  This topic, and the Challenge: cook your way through your freezer topic, help me see just how many things I CAN cook without going to the store.  The glass becomes half-full, thanks to your collective inspiration.  Thanks, folks. 

That's the best part.   Inspiring others and being inspired by others.  And around and round we go

[HungryChris]

Steak night in CT. Well marbled NY strip steaks, scalloped potatoes and roasted asparagus. 

HC

[JoNorvelleWalker]

As you may recall (but probably don't) last week I purchased a package of three pieces of filet mignon.  The first piece I cooked conventionally and was happy enough with the result -- even though the meat was more towards medium well than medium.

 

Tonight I cooked the second piece 55 deg C. sous vide.  Better in every way than the piece prepared conventionally.  Still with a nice crust.

 

Served with broccolini, hollandaise Piment d'Espelette, baguette.  But the bread was not my best.

 

[Shelby]

All of this asparagus is making me so hungry for it.

 

@JoNorvelleWalker  If it's homemade bread, ones not best is still pretty damn good.

 

I told my husband the other day that I feel like we are in a food rut--which would be my fault because I'm the one that makes dinner lol.  So, after this renovation is all done I am going to break out my cookbooks and get adventurous.  Meanwhile, when I was at the big city grocery store the other day I snagged a can of Hearts of Palm.  I don't know why really....maybe someone around here used it recently.  Anyway, I've never had it.  Google showed me a lot of salads.  I settled on a simple one.  I just wanted to see if this was something I'd want to buy/make again.  Hearts of palm with thinly sliced onions, a bit of olive oil, champagne vinegar, the worst tomato ever and salt and pepper and parsley.  I liked the salad even with the horrid "tomato" so I know I'll love it if/when we get some from the garden.  To me, hearts of palm are very similar to canned artichoke hearts.  I can only imagine that fresh hearts of palm are amazing.  However, another google told me that I'll likely never get to have a fresh one because they have no shelf life and are grown pretty far away from me.

Anyone here had fresh ones before?

 

Sheesh, that was a long diatribe ...lol...sorry.

 

 

Venison burgers to go with.

 

 

 

Yes, it was too tall for my mouth.

 

 

[kayb]

@Shelby, my favorite hearts of palm salad is with chunks of crisp-tender asparagus, barely blanched early green peas, and sliced, sauteed mushrooms, all in a red wine viniagrette. Served over sliced tomatoes, with a little grated Parm on top.

 

No, I've never had the fresh HoP either.

[Kim Shook]

@Anna N – I love a sweet Dutch baby, but that savoury one looks and sound amazing.  Also, it is gorgeous.  The idea of a giant gougere is intoxicating!  And @Shelby's idea of hollandaise is genius!

[Anna N]

 

SV'd pork tenderloin with a maple-onion cream sauce and some stirfried vegetables.

[Okanagancook]

Well, I really don't know where to begin.  These last couple of pages of the dinner thread have my head spinning.  EVERYTHING looks amazing made by EVERYONE. 

I have a 'spatchcockish' bird (cornish hen) in the freezer; I have a can of hearts of palm that I am stalling on using; I have some Gruyere in the fridge and fresh eggs in the fridge (recipe please!!); I have some nice potatoes and we love scalloped potatoes with the baked cheesy top;  I have some steaks in the freezer; and now I want Kim's cucumber sandwiches for lunch tomorrow.  Tonight we are having Jerk Chicken and I bet you will never guess where I got the most awesome recipe for the sauce!  Martha Stewart.  Also have some baked okra; kind of a refried bean dish with plenty of garlic so it seems and some rice with mushrooms.  I hope to remember to take a picture for the gallery here.

Bravo everyone! cheers

 

ps, can't wait for our asparagus season...another month and a half.  I never buy out of season.  Just isn't as good.

Edited March 4, 2017 by Okanagancook (log)