Dinner 2017 (Part 3)

[kayb]

I had takeout barbecue ("barbecue," in these parts, is always pulled pork), beans and slaw last night. Tonight, I had leftover barbecue and beans. We ate all the slaw last night. 

 

No complaints on either night.

 

[Steve Irby]

Fresh Pompano caught by neighbor  this morning. Two preps,  but the brown butter, sage, and pistachio was  my fav.

 

 

[mm84321]

That looks awesome!

[Ann_T]

@Steve Irby, I agree with mm84321.  

 

Pizza night.

 

 

Mushroom and Homemade Italian sausage for Moe and I and

 

Greek Potato pizza for my son Matt.

 

[liuzhou]

2 hours ago, Steve Irby said:

but the brown butter, sage, and pistachio was  my fav.

 

I think I would too. But I just got back from shopping. I eyed up the pompano, but passed. Now I want!

[liuzhou]

38 minutes ago, Ann_T said:

Mushroom and Homemade Italian sausage for Moe and I

 

 

Yeah! I'll have one of them too, please. Great looking pizzas, as usual!

[FrogPrincesse]

15 hours ago, gfweb said:

@FrogPrincesse Is that cabbage baked or braised? Looks interesting

It was braised. It's a really great recipe.

[liuzhou]

 

Last night, I had an online conversation with a friend in the next city and she mentioned that she had had 茄子肉末 qiézi ròumò or aubergine/eggplant with minced pork for dinner. That sounded good.

 

But instead I made 肉沫茄子 ròumò qiézi  or minced pork with aubergine/eggplant. What, you may ask is the difference? Well, it's subtle. Chinese restaurants tend to put the dominant ingredient first. So 茄子肉末 will be more vegetable while 肉沫茄子 will be more meat. I have even seen both on same menu in some restaurants.

Served with Shanghai bok choy (上海白菜 shànghǎi bái cài) and rice.

 

Before I came to China I never associated aubergine/eggplant with Chinese cuisine, but there are some wonderful dishes using it. This one is one of my favourites, though. Fuchsia Dunlop does a fine version in Land of Fish and Rice.(page 203).

 

The only "exotic" ingredient is Sweet Fermented Sauce (甜面酱 tián miàn jiàng), but it should be available in any Asian market.

 

Edited March 10, 2017 by liuzhou (log)

[shain]

Giant beans, fennel, fusilli, spinach, caramelized onion and gruyere gratin.

[scubadoo97]

@Steve Irby  looks excellent.  Pompano is such a fantastic fish if your lucky enough to find it.  And fresh out of the Gulf is a big thumbs up

[suzilightning]

Roasted a turkey breast from the freezer and have used it to make a turkey cottage pie as well as eating it with roasted beets, tomatoes and sweet potatoes.

Also made a beef stew we have been eating on for the week.

Just pulled a packet of bison from the freezer to make sweet and sour meatballs over the weekend.

[Kim Shook]

I had a craving for Caesar salad, so that and a single serving frozen pizza:

Those little frozen pizzas embarrass me a little, but they aren't really bad if you don't expect them to actually be PIZZA.  They are very crispy and it is almost impossible not to overcook the cheese, so they are really more like a tomato/cheesy flat bread.  I actually use them a lot as a side to a meal sized salad.

[sartoric]

Duck salad. Inspired by @Captains meal I threw together this salad. The half a roast duck came from the local Chinese butcher, also included were lots of leaves, julienned snow peas, cherry tomatoes, sliced cucumber, spring onion, chopped peanuts, radish sprouts and fried shallots. All moistened with a Thai style dressing featuring lime juice.

 

[Norm Matthews]

Ribs have been smoked for dinner tonight. We will also have some home made potato salad.  

[David Ross]

Carne Asada street tacos with pico de gallo and roasted poblano crema.  This is one of my favorite meals.  This time I chose flat iron steak instead of hangar steak or flap meat.  It was actually quite good and very tender.  Skirt steak and hangar steak have gotten so popular that it now sells for $10.99 per lb.  At least up here in Eastern, WA.

 

The marinade for the meat was charred onion and garlic, lime juice, cilantro, olive oil, a little orange juice, salt, pepper, cilantro and some chili powder.  I only marinated the steak about 3 hours because I find if it goes longer the lime juice starts to cook the meat, aka ceviche and it turns gray in color. This time of year up here we have to use Roma tomatoes from down South for our pico de gallo.  (Actually we don't see home grown tomatoes until late July).  In addition to diced onion and cilantro, I add garlic, lime juice, salt, pepper and a bit of chili powder and minced jalapeno.  The poblano crema is really delicious.  Just broil the poblano to blacken the skin.  Let it sit in a paper bag to steam off the skin, then puree with cilantro, charred garlic and onion, minced jalapeno, salt, pepper and Mexican crema.  It's the consistency of a thick herb mayonnaise.  It's also delicious on both hot grilled chicken and cold chicken.

 

[David Ross]

I really like making the roast poblano crema as it takes me out of the realm of my standard salsas.

[mm84321]

Found some gorgeous porcini mushrooms today at the market. Grilled halibut to accompany.. 

[HungryChris]

Baked stuffed shrimp at Deb's request.

HC

[robirdstx]

17 minutes ago, HungryChris said:

Baked stuffed shrimp at Deb's request.

HC

 

Yum! Good call Deb!

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I've been on a black bean kick.

 

 

Tonight, black bean cassoulet.  Not strictly a cassoulet I suppose, but a black bean stew of sausages and long braised chuck.  Onions.  Garlic and rosemary, red wine.  I no longer recall where the original recipe came from to give credit.

 

As many times as I've made this dish, at least half a hundred, this was possibly the best.  The Rancho Gordo beans didn't hurt, of course, but the real trick was in the cooking method.  The original recipe called for using a dutch oven, which is finished the final four hours in a slow oven.  Prepared as specified the temperature is far too high and invariably the meats are dry and the sauce is paste.

 

This time I browned the meats and then braised the chuck in a deep Fissler pan with a glass lid.  It was easy to keep an eye on what was going on.  Plus nothing sticks to Fissler steel.  I cooked the beans and finished the dish in my new Falk pot au feu, on the stovetop between 170-180 deg F.  The beans were just right and the meat was luscious.  Baguette was above average.

 

[C. sapidus]

David, your tacos look delightful, and roasted Poblano crema sounds brilliant.

 

Welcome home meal for Mrs. C - Baked garlic chicken and arroz verde (Mexican green rice, pilaf-style, with chicken stock and blended Poblano chiles, cilantro, flat-leaf parsley, spinach, garlic, and white onion). This is what it looked like for breakfast . . .

 

[ChocoMom]

I made pasties last night for dinner.  As they are not particularly attractive, I did not bother to photograph. But, it was noteworthy - to me, at least- because it was first batch  I've made in the new/rebuilt house.  Come to think of it, that was a first I've made since the fire last year!

   I only had a thawed chuck roast and ground beef on hand to work from, so I diced part of the roast, mixed in the ground beef. added the diced potatoes, rutabaga, carrot and onion.   In years past, I've been able to make them from all homegrown beef and veggies. But, again, the fire (and lack of gardening time) stifled those efforts. So, the only real "homegrown" element was the grass-fed beef.  It was a good practice run. 

[ninagluck]

my fishmonger had beautiful wild salmon loins. I cured them with salt/sugar/meyer lemon peel and cooked them sv for 25min to 40° C. I served it with a cucumber tartare, dill oil and dill tempura. very fresh, clean taste.

[mgaretz]

Tri-tip, cooked SV at 131F for 8 hours then torch-seared.  Served with salad consisting of arugula, beets and avocado with my new sherry vinaigrette dressing.  The dressing is 1 part sherry vinegar, 1 part vegetable oil, 2 parts olive oil, 1 part honey, 1 part dijon mustard, salt, pepper and a sprinkle of Trader Joe's 21 Seasoning Salute (aka Mrs Dash's).

I have been using a version of Magic Browning Powder, which is dextrose mixed with baking soda.  The original ratio was 3 parts dextrose to 2 parts baking soda, and while people said you couldn't taste the soda, I could.  So I started lowering the amount of soda, but any amount still had some taste plus a grittiness that I didn't like.  (The reason for the soda is that the maillard reaction works best in a basic (alkaline) environment.)   So on this cook I tried just straight dextrose.  The browning was just as good and no taste or grittiness.  

 

 

[sartoric]

A North Indian meal with two dishes from the excellent "Tasting India" by Christine Manfield. 

Chicken curry, marinated in yoghurt, ginger garlic paste, chilli, coriander and turmeric, then simmered with lots of sweated onion and garlic. The star of the show was the cauliflower in the aloo gobi. This recipe (in the same book) was from the Ganges View hotel in Varanasi, where we also stayed. In deference to the sacred Ganges, they use no onions or garlic. Served with basmati, parathas, tomato chutney and mango chutney (both home made).