Dinner 2017 (Part 6)

[robirdstx]

 

Pan-Seared Pork Loin Chops in Wine Sauce with Broccoli and Cheesy Potato Casserole

 

 

Edited October 3, 2017 by robirdstx (log)

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Moving further south to Sicily, Bugialli's pasta alla norma III...

 

 

 

My eggplant and my tomatoes.  Eggplant was not a bit bitter.  Baguette and ricotta salata not shown.  The baguette was completely superfluous.  I couldn't finish the pasta as it was.  In truth the dish was a bit heavy for my taste.

 

But now I have a whole lot less eggplant and tomatoes to dispose of!

 

[dcarch]

Got to use up veggies from the garden.

 

dcarch

 

Steak, soud vided

 

Head-on shrimps on mustard green

[HungryChris]

Greek salad, chourico stuffed clams (from some that I harvested today)  and a shrimp cocktail.

HC

[liuzhou]

Duck X 2

 

 

Duck breast, duck foie gras, Shanghai bak choy with oyster sauce, couscous.

Edited October 3, 2017 by liuzhou (log)

[rotuts]

@chefmd 

 

great looking seared tuna.

 

the other day I was at a friends and he had some fabulous tuna from Costco

 

no aromas what so ever.  he planned Seared Tuna  as above , probably w a similar dipping sauce.

 

Yum Yum I said.

 

then I paused and asked for my portion to be raw.

 

this was tuna that had been expertly frozen and thawed

 

then a taste test .

 

mine was better.    I don't think the sear accomplishes anything and ends up w a dry mouth feel

 

my two cents.

 

next time you sear , cut out the seared bits and compare them to the raw center

 

[Shelby]

Salad to use up some cheeses, steak and shrimp

 

[mm84321]

14 hours ago, chefmd said:

What temp and how long for sous vide if you don't min sharing.  Halibut is so delicate that I often worry about over cooking it with stove top method.

 

55C for about 25 minutes.

 

The best method I have found for cooking halibut in the conventional manner is briefly blanching one side in a pan, then transferring to a baking tray and finishing in a low oven (325-350) covered with buttered parchment, until a cake tester pierces through without resistance (should feel like you are piercing a stiff custard).

[Ann_T]

Roasted a whole turkey breast before going to work on Sunday.

For dinner we had Hot Turkey Sandwiches with double fried fries.

 

[rotuts]

@Ann_T 

 

Wow !

[ninagluck]

not appealing at all, but delicious! this bread sauce with lots of horseradish is usually served in Vienna with boiled beef (called Semmelkren) . While my trip to Slovenia I had it served with their traditional sausages which was new to me. so I bought sausages there and cooked it tonight back home, still like it. 

Edited October 3, 2017 by ninagluck (log)

[BeatriceB]

Oh, Shelby and Suzilightning, I have the very same problem. It's OK if it's something I'm cooking quickly, like seared meat with a pan sauce, but anything that requires multiple steps (with delicious odors), sauteeing vegetables, browning meat, braising for three hours... I just don't want it anymore that day. Happily, such things are even better the next day :-)

 

Also, I really would like to contribute to this thread, but my meals are not very sophisticated these days (I am still recovering from a severe illness -- not that they are terribly sophisticated anyway) and my "camera" is an ancient phone. So I was very happy to see the warm welcome given to CantCookStillTry!

 

 

Edited October 6, 2017 by BeatriceB
Fixed typo (log)

[Anna N]

12 minutes ago, BeatriceB said:

Also, I really would like to contribute to this thread, but my meals are not very sophisticated these days (I am still recovering from a severe illness -- not that they are terribly sophisticated anyway) and my "camera" is an ancient phone. So I was very happy to see the warm welcome given to CantCookDontTry!

 As others have said before me, it is not a competition. It’s not an attempt to take the best photograph or make the most amazing meal. It’s a way of sharing what we cook and eat with one another.  Please put your worries aside and post what you cook and eat. If anyone is unkind to you (most unlikely) you will find lots of us coming to your defense. 

[Shelby]

45 minutes ago, BeatriceB said:

Oh, Shelby and Suzilightning, I have the very same problem. It's OK if it's something I'm cooking quickly, like seared meat with a pan sauce, but anything that requires multiple steps (with delicious odors), sauteeing vegetables, browning meat, braising for three hours... I just don't want it anymore that day. Happily, such things are even better the next day :-)

 

Also, I really would like to contribute to this thread, but my meals are not very sophisticated these days (I am still recovering from a severe illness -- not that they are terribly sophisticated anyway) and my "camera" is an ancient phone. So I was very happy to see the warm welcome given to CantCookDontTry!

 

 

Glad I'm not the only one--it doesn't happen all the time and I can't tell you why it does when it does.  I usually wake up around 3 in the morning craving whatever I had cooked lol.  I would say that it does happen more with long cooked meat based things though.....

 

Please please please contribute.  My meals are never sophisticated!  I like the wide range of fancy fancy meals to home cooked and not fancy.  No one will be derogatory.  If they are...well, I'm short, but I'm mean lol.

[ElsieD]

1 hour ago, BeatriceB said:

Oh, Shelby and Suzilightning, I have the very same problem. It's OK if it's something I'm cooking quickly, like seared meat with a pan sauce, but anything that requires multiple steps (with delicious odors), sauteeing vegetables, browning meat, braising for three hours... I just don't want it anymore that day. Happily, such things are even better the next day :-)

 

Also, I really would like to contribute to this thread, but my meals are not very sophisticated these days (I am still recovering from a severe illness -- not that they are terribly sophisticated anyway) and my "camera" is an ancient phone. So I was very happy to see the warm welcome given to CantCookDontTry!

 

 

 

I once posted a picture where our entire dinner, meat, veg, etc, was pretty much the same colour.  Look awful, tasted good.  Don't be shy.

[robirdstx]

 

Grilled Sausage, Drunken Beans and a warm Flour Tortilla

[chefmd]

I almost never cook Russian food but tonight was the night.  I present to you Kotlety.  It's the Russian version of meat patty.  I remember helping grandma.  My job was to ground very gristly meat with hand cranked grinder.  The grinder had to be dis assembled frequently due the gristle being stuck around the very dull blade.  No sauce.  Barely any seasoning.  Tonight's beef came from Whole Foods.  I lovingly seasoned it wit salt and pepper, flavored it with garlic and onions, cooked it gently in cast iron skillet.  Served with pan juices and roasted potatoes.  Still, kotllety of my youth tasted better...  I miss you grandma! 

 

[dcarch]

2 hours ago, BeatriceB said:

Also, I really would like to contribute to this thread, but my meals are not very sophisticated these days (I am still recovering from a severe illness -- not that they are terribly sophisticated anyway) and my "camera" is an ancient phone. So I was very happy to see the warm welcome given to CantCookDontTry!

 

Do me a favor. Can you name a few famous chefs who can also take good food photos, and can you tell me how many good food photographers who are also good cooks?

Also, sophisticated cooking does not mean complicated cooking.

I hope you are feeling better soon. Good cooking helps to promote good health.

 

dcarch

 

Edited October 4, 2017 by dcarch (log)

[JoNorvelleWalker]

3 hours ago, chefmd said:

I almost never cook Russian food but tonight was the night.  I present to you Kotlety.  It's the Russian version of meat patty.  I remember helping grandma.  My job was to ground very gristly meat with hand cranked grinder.  The grinder had to be dis assembled frequently due the gristle being stuck around the very dull blade.  No sauce.  Barely any seasoning.  Tonight's beef came from Whole Foods.  I lovingly seasoned it wit salt and pepper, flavored it with garlic and onions, cooked it gently in cast iron skillet.  Served with pan juices and roasted potatoes.  Still, kotllety of my youth tasted better...  I miss you grandma! 

 

 

My mother used to grind meat with a hand cranked grinder.  I remember once a Consumer Reports review of meat grinders.  They faulted the hand cranked model for lack of a safety mechanism but added "It would take a real masochist to keep turning the crank."

 

[Thanks for the Crepes]

We had a hand cranked meat grinder growing up, the kind that clamps onto a heavy table. I used it many times, and didn't find it the least bit dangerous, and I am a bit of a wimp about anything threatening. Just don't stick your fingers into the maw while turning the crank with your other hand. Duh. Much easier to understand and cope with to me, than the automated machines we have today. 

 

I wish I had this old meat grinder today, but sadly, it is probably rusting away in a landfill somewhere. It would still be useful now, I would wager, if someone had taken and used it. Fortunately, Food Lion still grinds nice ground chuck daily in their store where I can buy it.

 

I made dinner in my new CSO (Cuisinart Steam Oven). I have an old recipe for chicken and rice that comes from a fundraiser cookbook put out by the Order of the Eastern Star (sisters, mothers, daughters) of men who belong to the Masonic Lodge. I reduced it drastically to 2 servings. So I mixed 1/4 cup fine diced onion, 1/2 cup rice, 1 can Campbell's cream of mushroom soup, and 1-1/2 cups boiling water in my smallest French white pyroceram covered casserole dish.

 

I topped it with one of my huge, one pound, chicken leg quarters, seasoned with salt and pepper all over and dropped on top of the rice mixture. Then I sprinkled paprika on the chix and dried parsley all over the surface of the casserole liberally. Cover goes on and it gets cooked at 350 F for an hour. Then cover comes off and it gets cooked an additional 30 minutes at 350 F to crisp the skin somewhat and thicken the gravy.

 

I also cooked up broccoli which was delicious without even any salt eaten with the gravy and rice.

 

Scoff all you like at the mushroom soup, but this is delicious. I will eat the drumstick portion and the rest of the rice and gravy tomorrow.

 

I was a little afraid of the lack of clearance between the top heating elements of the CSO and the knob handle on top of my over 20-year-old and beloved casserole dish, but nothing untoward happened, and dinner was scrumptious. It makes the kind of sauce where you want to lick the plate, and since I was here by myself, that might have happened.   

[Anna N]

 

 Pickled herring on roggenbrot. 

 

 

Washed down by one (perhaps more) of these (Aalborg Taffel akvavit). 

[HungryChris]

I know that clam cakes (aka fritters) are probably something you are not accustomed to hearing about, but here is my second attempt at one of Deb's favorites. These were a far cry from the finish line, but miles beyond my first shameful effort. These give me hope that I will arrive at my destination. They are a New England tradition and once you have dipped a good one into some tartar sauce and taken a bite, you have not lived a full life. I paired them with silver queen corn and Korean BBQ wings, just to be certain we would have a good meal no matter what the outcome.

HC

[HungryChris]

1 hour ago, Anna N said:

 

 

 

Washed down by one (perhaps more) of these (Aalborg Taffel akvavit). 

@Anna N I am not sure if it's the cool glass or the description of akvavit, but I am now on the lookout for either one and hope to have them both at some point to give it a try.

[chromedome]

13 hours ago, BeatriceB said:

Oh, Shelby and Suzilightning, I have the very same problem. It's OK if it's something I'm cooking quickly, like seared meat with a pan sauce, but anything that requires multiple steps (with delicious odors), sauteeing vegetables, browning meat, braising for three hours... I just don't want it anymore that day. Happily, such things are even better the next day :-)

 

Also, I really would like to contribute to this thread, but my meals are not very sophisticated these days (I am still recovering from a severe illness -- not that they are terribly sophisticated anyway) and my "camera" is an ancient phone. So I was very happy to see the warm welcome given to CantCookDontTry!

 

 

I sometimes arrive at the same point with long-cooked dishes, but from the opposite direction: I can't resist picking at them while they're cooking, so by the time they're done I'm full and can't eat.

[liuzhou]

 

Sea bass fillet with black rice and stir-fried baby bok choy. Sloppy plating, but it tasted fine.

 

Edited October 20, 2017 by liuzhou (log)