Lunch! What'd ya have? (2017)

[scubadoo97]

Ready for lunch but it will be light and simple.  Maybe PB with no J.  We have a bunch in preparation of Irma.  Spent much time in my yard and helped my neighbor cut and haul to the street 2 20-30 foot queen palms that fell in his yard missing his house by a couple feet.   He told me the wind was blowing south when they fell.  The direction towards my house.   Yikes!!!  Good thing gravity was in my favor

[kayb]

How ARE things in Kissimmee, has anyone heard? Have friends down there I haven't heard from since they said they were staying...

 

[scubadoo97]

Possible they had power issues

[HungryChris]

I dropped off a bag of surplus tomatoes and peppers to my ex-cube mate yesterday and took the occasion to grab some take out sushi, only to wonder why I had not done this sooner. The restaurant owner, always friendly, shook his head and smiled at me, as he made his favorite comment, because I always get "Same thing!"

HC

Edited September 15, 2017 by HungryChris (log)

[shain]

Pasta salad with roasted peppers, soft feta cheese, kalamata olives, sun dried tomatoes, basil, olive oil, vinegar.

[Anna N]

 

 Bacon, broccoli and cheese. 

[Doofa]

On 06/09/2017 at 6:55 PM, Nicolai said:

The bun is doused with butter

 

 

 

Do you mean sprayed with butter. I have never seen one of those before. D

[robirdstx]

 

Beef Taco Nachos

[lindag]

Today's lunch was a chicken patty from the freezer along with a potato bun, lettuce, slice of Swiss, thin slice onion, mayo and thin slices of a pretty decent tasting Roma tomato.

Pretty good.  I prefer Banquet brand patties when I can find them.  Some brands are way under-seasoned

[chefmd]

Annual pig roast in our beach house community.  This guy brought a huge smoker in his huge truck :).  Pork was fall off the bone tender.  The weather is perfect 70s and sunny.

[robirdstx]

Quick, late lunch at Sawa Mediterranean Restaurant and Grill in Houston's Clear Lake Area

 

 

Chicken Shawarma with Garlic Sauce for my husband, 

 

 

Gyro for me (there were onions and tomatoes tucked in there with lots of tzatziki sauce),

 

 

and a small piece of housemade Baklava to share.

 

 

Edited September 17, 2017 by robirdstx (log)

[Anna N]

 

 

   A friend dropped by with some fresh tomatoes and some fresh corn.  I had managed to miss lunch and was hangry. 

Real food fast.  

Using the no muss, no fuss microwave method I was ready to dig into this within six minutes.  Unfortunately it was still too hot so I had to wait an extra two minutes.

Click

 I cheat by cutting off the end of the corn before microwaving it. 

 

Edited September 17, 2017 by Anna N (log)

[Anna N]

 

 A bit messy to eat but tasty nevertheless. Tomato and cheese sandwich with one of the tomatoes that arrived with the corn that I had yesterday.

[HungryChris]

BLT with shredded lettuce left over from taco night.

HC

[robirdstx]

 

Beef Stew from leftovers of last night's dinner.

[Kim Shook]

Not sure whether this counts as breakfast or lunch as it is 2:30pm and the first thing I've eaten today.  I'll go with lunch:

[btbyrd]

 

Yellowfin ribbons; spicy; avocado.

 

 

Edited September 21, 2017 by btbyrd (log)

[TicTac]

Fancy - BT!

 

A top down shot of that plate would look p.cool!

[Smithy]

4 hours ago, btbyrd said:

 

Yellowfin ribbons; spicy; avocado.

 

 

 

 

Are the yellowfin ribbons the petals of the rosette above?  Are they made from a gel?  It's very impressive, and I'd like to know more about it.

[btbyrd]

It's just strips of yellowfin cut into thin strips. I was inspired by a dish I had a while ago at one of Jean-Georges Vongerichten's restaurants in NYC -- "The Spice House". When I ate it, the plating was different and it was served with different garnishes (I recall tapioca pearls). He also had a similar version at his flagship restaurant, with different garnishes, pictured below. After I visited The Spice House, I got Jean George's "Asian Flavors" cookboook, that had a recipe for Tuna Ribbons. Here's a snapshot from the cookbook:

 

 

I'd always been curious about getting that magical looking plating.

 

First things first, I did the ChefSteps "salgar" dry cure trick on my tuna loin. 

 

 

After the ice water bath, I blotted it dry, wrapped it in paper towels, and popped it in the freezer for 10 minutes. Then the slicing began. 

 

I used my Global G-17 27cm chef's knife on a Hi-Soft board I got from Korin. Sharp knives and good boards matter. Cut the tuna into thin strips, wiping the blade down with a moist side towel after every other cut. Once the tuna was cut, I placed it in a bowl with some sesame oil diluted with some neutral olive oil. The JG recipe says to coat them with canola or another neutral oil. Either way, you need to do that to keep the tuna ribbons from sticking to each other. Just prior to service, I dressed them with some quality soy sauce.

 

I wasn't really sure how to plate it. The Three Star Michelin Jean-Georges presentation looks freaking phenomenal in its highest iterations. Here's a pic that I found on Flickr from user Ulterior Epicure:

 

 

I have no idea how that nesting is done. I have some ideas, but that'll require some more experimentation. But what I did was grab a ring mold and just layer it in one ribbon at a time. It sounds like it'd take a while or be complicated, but I layered all that in there pretty quickly and easily. I was surprised. To make things easier, I moved all the tuna ribbons from their sesame-olive-oil bowl to a parchment-lined sheet tray, with all the strands lined up the same way, which made it easy to grab each new one and layer it on.

 

The color of my tuna is in large part due to the soy sauce, but I used a light-colored high-sodium usukuchi soy sauce to keep it as bright as possible. The other factor is the lighting in my kitchen, which is garbage. But I'll attach another picture with better color and a different perspective just for good measure.

 

I will say that it was freaking delicious and very, very simple. It's basically just tuna, an avocado, and a sharp knife. I just wish I had had some radishes...

[btbyrd]

Here's a side shot with more accurate color. 

 

[Okanagancook]

Greek salad (with green peppers.....last of them from the garden).  Doesn't compare with the beautiful lunch posted above though.

Edited September 22, 2017 by Okanagancook
add more informatioin (log)

[Duvel]

"Strammer Max": freshly baked rye bread (see bread thread), sweet mustard, Leberkäse, fried egg.

 

 

For the bread I also opened some potted pork belly and a jar of "Zwiebelmettwurst" (cured meat with onions). In both cases the jellied juices from the glasses are fantastic.

 

Edited September 23, 2017 by Duvel (log)

[Nicolai]

On 9/16/2017 at 12:01 AM, Doofa said:

Do you mean sprayed with butter. I have never seen one of those before. D

No, not sprayed. He had a brush which he wets with the melted butter sitting atop a warm grill and brushes (douses) the bread roll as in the pic

[Nicolai]

Late, very late lunch yesterday.

 

- A green salad, I wanted a green salad and I got all things green including the kitchen sink: 

Green beans - asparagus tips - arugula - lettuce - avocado - green wild thyme - chopped parsley and few pomegranate seeds. The dressing is simple EVOO - lemon - S&P.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

- An Artsy Fartsy serving of minced meat (loaf) rolled around chopped spinach with a tomato concasse, pomegranate molasses and pomegranate seeds.

The second row is Italian style baby aubergines baked with mozzarella on a cushion of tomato sauce. A splash of yogurt/cream holds them together and don't ask why as some grated peanuts stand in waiting.

To be honest, the dish works and is very tasty.