Dinner 2017 (Part 6)

[scubadoo97]

Tortilla soup

 

[liuzhou]

雪菜 xuě cài, meaning 'snow greens' is salt fermented, chopped mustard greens. These I bought from the supermarket, but I have made them myself from time to time. The ones on the plate below are home made. The next image is the supermarket variety.

 

 

 

Anyway, I had some in the fridge. Usually they are cooked with slivers of pork and chilli, but I was out of pork and too busy to go get any. A rummage in the freezer produced a pork kidney, the nearest I was going to get. So I cleaned and sliced it., marinated it in Shaoxing wine with garlic, ginger and chilli, then stir fried it with the snow veg and finally some green onion.. 

 

Served with rice.

 

I've never seen or heard of kidney with snow greens before, but I'd make it again.

 

Edited August 10, 2017 by liuzhou (log)

[suzilightning]

We are leaving Sunday for a week cruise so trying to use up whatever is in the fridge...

 

Some leftover cooked elbows and peas so just add cheese, some mustard, an egg and some milk for mac and cheese.

Yellow beans I got from a local farm stand and some grape tomatoes.   Saute the whites of some scallions, last of the shallot, some garlic,  Add the beans with some water and the tomatoes and cook until the beans are soft and the tomatoes burst.  Add some sherry vinegar, the basil from my new kitchen herb garden and a tiny bit of sugar with some salt.  Take off the heat and add the last bit of the ricotta salata.

 

Today I don't know if John will get home or not but I saw a local place has got some corn in so.....2 ears for me along with a salad of using up the last of the tomatoes and some good red leaf lettuce.  If he does get home I have some chicken breasts thawed to pound out, some sage from the new kitchen garden and some prosciutto de San Danielle and some pasta.

 

 

 

[Captain]

What an amazing vibrant looking meal @liamsaunt Nice work.

[Anna N]

Neither a great photograph nor a great execution but this was my first attempt at grilling Halloumi cheese in a grill pan. Every thing was brushed with an olive oil, thyme and garlic mix.  My original plan involved the use of my Cuisinart Griddler. Apparently I had forgotten that it needed to be retired as plastic parts were disintegrating on it.  Damn.  The grill pan is not as roomy nor as "nonstick"  as my well used griddler. 

 

[robirdstx]

 

Pork Tacos with Crispy Carnitas, Onion, Cilantro and Salsa Verde

[Norm Matthews]

The recipe said it was Mexican Stuffed Shells but I suspect that it isn't really Mexican in origin.

[scubadoo97]

Leftovers tonight.   Tortilla soup.  But changed up the starter to corn tortillas toasted on the camal filled with white cheese and cilantro.   Cucumber, radish and tomato salad with cilantro.  A squeeze of orange and lime , salt with an olive oil drizzle and sprinkle of ancho and morita ground chilies made up the dressing

 

 

[liuzhou]

Dinner tonight was one of my favourite things to eat, but I seldom make it. 辣子鸡 là zi jī or 'chilli chicken'. No one else was volunteering to make it, but I really fancied it, so I bit the bullet.

 

First you have to get hold of around 50 grams of these chillies. 干指天椒 (gān zhǐ tiān jiāo) or 'dried pointing to heaven chillies' so-called because they grow on the plant pointing upwards rather than hanging down like most chillies do.

 

 

Each chilli has to be cut in half and the seeds removed. A long tedious chore. Here is the chilli seed detritus. (You can plant these to get your own pointing up chilli plants.)

 

 

and the deseeded halved chillies.

 

 

I then cubed a boneless chicken breast (Sichuan would use on-the-bone meat and I sometimes do, but today boneless was what I had). It is marinated in Shaoxing wine and both light and dark soy sauces then deep fried until brown with crisp edges.

 

Garlic and ginger is fried separately, the chillies added along with a tablespoon of Sichuan peppercorns.

 

 

When everything smells wonderful the chicken is added along with some green onion and the whole lot heated through. Sesame oil is added at the last minute.

 

The finished dish:

 

 

To accompany this I took some sweet potato shoots (红薯苗 hóng shǔ miáo) and stir fried them with a little garlic.

 

And rice.

 

Most enjoyable, but I'll probably wait about a year before doing it again. The thing is you spend so long dealing with the chillies then you don't eat them! Although, they do add flavour to the chicken.

[Smithy]

1 minute ago, liuzhou said:

First you have to get hold of around 50 grams of these chillies. 干指天椒 (gān zhǐ tiān jiāo) or 'dried pointing to heaven chillies' so-called because they grow on the plant pointing upwards rather than hanging down like most chillies do.

 

 

Each chilli has to be cut in half and the seeds removed. A long tedious chore. Here is the chilli seed detritus.

 

Why must the seeds be removed?  Heat control, appearance, texture, something else?  I ask because I'm dealing with a ristra of dried chilis from New Mexico, one at a time.  I'm not very careful about seed removal and haven't noticed any problems, but they're a different type of chili than yours.

 

Incidentally, your finished dish looks well worth eating. 

[liuzhou]

4 minutes ago, Smithy said:

 

Why must the seeds be removed?  Heat control, appearance, texture, something else?  I ask because I'm dealing with a ristra of dried chilis from New Mexico, one at a time.  I'm not very careful about seed removal and haven't noticed any problems, but they're a different type of chili than yours.

 

I'd say for heat control. Appearance to an extent. And for balance with the Sichuan peppercorns, perhaps.

 

I don't normally de-seed chillies for other dishes but do for this one. I've seen someone hospitalised after eating it, but then he ate some of the chillies despite being told not to.

Edited August 11, 2017 by liuzhou (log)

[rotuts]

@liuzhou 

 

why were the ginger and garlic fried separately ?    is this an issue w one or the other burning ?

[rotuts]

@Norm Matthews 

 

I really like the idea of Mexican Stuffed Shells !

 

yours look delicious.

Edited August 11, 2017 by rotuts (log)

[liuzhou]

22 minutes ago, rotuts said:

@liuzhou 

 

why were the ginger and garlic fried separately ?    is this an issue w one or the other burning ?

 

Because the chicken is deep fried. You wouldn't want to do that with chopped garlic and ginger, would you?

 

17 minutes ago, rotuts said:

@liuzhou 

 

I really like the idea of Mexican Stuffed Shells !

 

yours look delicious.

 

What? They are @Norm Matthews' , not mine.

Edited August 11, 2017 by liuzhou (log)

[HungryChris]

Korean BBQ chicken thighs, corn and a cucumber salad. The Silver Queen is still a few days off they say, and I can't wait.

HC

Edited August 11, 2017 by HungryChris (log)

[David Ross]

For some reason I was thinking about vintage Jell-O tv commercials this morning and it reminded me of our eG Cook-Off from 2012, "Gels, Jell-O and Aspic."  Here are two dishes I did for the Cook-Off, one very simple using a spicy blood mary aspic to garnish a fresh oyster.  Oh how I'd love a plate of these oysters with a glass of wine tonight for dinner.  But would have to be indoors as our air quality is poor and hazardous due to wildfires.

 

The other dish is another way I use huckleberries, in this case a savory recipe of foie gras mousse encased in ice wine jelly and served with huckleberry compote.  It's a nice appetizer bite for a dinner, but I think way to fancy dancy for summer eating.

 

 

 

 

[Okanagancook]

Excellent and interesting looking meals everyone.  I made a meal with a Middle Eastern bent:  Cauliflower with tahini/lemon sauce which was deliciously easy to make. Yogurt, raisins, mint & cucumber garnished with mint, rose petals, olive oil and walnuts which was a real hit and looked very pretty. Spiced lamb leg.  Rice with nuts & fried onions.  Carrots glazed with honey & lemon and garnished with goat cheese which was totally demolished.

[gfweb]

A few recent dinners

 

Bacon-wrapped pork tenderloin

 

Beef tenderloin with marsala sauce,  root veg and roasted cabbage (which I need to do more often)

 

Fritatta and salad

 

 

Meatloaf

 

[gfweb]

36 minutes ago, Okanagancook said:

Excellent and interesting looking meals everyone.  I made a meal with a Middle Eastern bent:  Cauliflower with tahini/lemon sauce which was deliciously easy to make. Yogurt, raisins, mint & cucumber garnished with mint, rose petals, olive oil and walnuts which was a real hit and looked very pretty. Spiced lamb leg.  Rice with nuts & fried onions.  Carrots glazed with honey & lemon and garnished with goat cheese which was totally demolished.

 

 

Woof!

 

[rotuts]

@gfweb  

 

Yikes !

 

fantastic Stuff !

 

however  

 

Im sure there were reason for the TenderLoin

 

yours looks tasty  

 

RibCap might have been better

 

Soooooo   the TL was a Gift ?

 

that just explains it

 

cjeers

[ninagluck]

hungarian lecso with an egg. shakshuka is well known, but I thought I do something more traditional from our former empire ;-)

[Anna N]

@ninagluck

 

 I researched various recipes but none of them struck me as likely to turn out as yours did.  Some called for peppers, tomatoes and paprika.  Some included a sausage of some sort.  But yours looks almost as if it has a custard around the outer edge.   Can you just comment on your method of making this Hungarian staple please?  

[Steve Irby]

Trying to expand my okra repertoire. Fresh okra, corn and poblano pepper sauted until "al dente" with tasso/poblano cream sauce. Served over jasmine rice with a smoked chicken thigh and fresh tomatoes.

[Anna N]

 

 Cheesy polenta topped with oyster mushrooms and spinach. This was inspired by a recipe in the Green City Market Cook Book. 

 

 

[kayb]

Popcorn and an Almond Joy mini. And wine. I don't remember the last time I cooked dinner.