Dinner 2018

[Shelby]

Just now, KennethT said:

@ShelbyI figured you'd have a few dozen quail in your freezer from Ronnie's hunts, no?

I wish!  Quail have  been few and far between around here in recent years.  I think he got one last fall and we immediately ate it lol. 

[kayb]

20 minutes ago, Shelby said:

I wish!  Quail have  been few and far between around here in recent years.  I think he got one last fall and we immediately ate it lol. 

 

Wow....none up there either? When I was a kid, Daddy and I would go quail hunting in W. Tenn. and routinely bring home a dozen or more on a Saturday morning. No quail there any more, either, nor in Arkansas. They're trying to import and reestablish the population in Arkansas now.

 

 

[Tropicalsenior]

Last night we had schnitzel sandwiches with green beans and Serrano ham in a vinegar bacon fat vinaigrette and cucumber, radish salad in a sour cream sauce.

Dessert was an orange bread pudding made in the instant pot.

[ElsieD]

Last night we had Dak Bokkeum with spinach which became with bok choy instead.  The link to the recipe should anyone want it is on the Cooking Light Diet thread.

[Paul Bacino]

@ElsieD--nice plate..i want some ?

 

[kayb]

Last night, youngest daughter came down for a sleepover preparatory to taking off on a shopping expedition early this morning. I decided I'd make coquille St. Jacques, because I'd seen the NYT Cooking plug for the Ina Garten recipe, which is certainly pretty easy. I scooped the baked casseroles out of the ramekin to dish it up on the plate for the photo; served with roasted broccoli and potatoes roasted in duck fat.

 

 

Very rich dinner. I have to say I am less-than-overwhelmed with Ina's inclusion of curry powder in the sauce; next time, I'll go back to the traditional pinch of nutmeg. Otherwise, it was good, but for the fact what I thought was Gruyere in my cheese drawer was, in fact, Jarlsberg. It sufficed. 

 

Because I didn't think my 12-oz bag of frozen scallops from Aldi would stretch to three people, I thawed a package of Aldi lobster tails that had been residing in the freezer, diced them up, and added them. Went together nicely.

 

Earlier in the week, another frozen Aldi seafood, ahi tuna steaks, served as the centerpiece for poke bowls.

 

 

From 11 o'clock, marinated tuna, pineapple, edamame, diced cucumber in sesame dressing, all grouped around brown rice. One of my favorite weeknight dinners.

 

 

 

[ninagluck]

salmon stuffing for savoy cabbage: 200 g salmon, half frozen, 100 g heavy cream, very cold, 1 small egg, salt, white pepper, nutmeg. I mixed everything in my thermomix on high speed into a fine farce. blanche the cabbage, put a leave in a laddle, fill with the farce, trim the cabbage to get a neat parcel. Steam for abt 30 min. 

[ElsieD]

Shrimp arrabbiata.

[liuzhou]

Last night, I decided I had had enough of all the Chinese New Year nonsense (on only the second day) and went back to my roots.

 

 

Mince and tatties! With cabbage.

 

Well, almost to my roots. It is still somewhat Sinified. The mince was made with Shanghai Worcestershire sauce as I'm out of Lea & Perrins and also contained a whole star anise and some chilli powder. Also, the cabbage was stir-fried.

 

My long departed, Scottish grandmother is no doubt apoplectic in her grave. To please my equally departed, French grandmother, that's a blob of Dijon mustard at top-right.

Edited February 18, 2018 by liuzhou (log)

[mm84321]

7 slices of cheese pizza.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

15 minutes ago, mm84321 said:

7 slices of cheese pizza.

 

Pictures or it didn't happen.

 

[suzilightning]

57 minutes ago, mm84321 said:

7 slices of cheese pizza.

or as my hero, Yogi Berra, said  when asked if he wanted his large pizza cut in 4 or 8 slices.....

"Four.  I don't think I can eat eight."  

[dcarch]

Happy New Year! Lunar New year, It's the Year Of The Dog.

 

Have been invited to a couple of New Years feasts. Amazing food.

Although not feeling to cook another big meal, still need to celebrate to bring good luck.

For Year Of The Dog, Hot dogs seem appropriate. :-)

 

dcarch

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Dinner for a wintry work night:

 

 

 

Leftover chicken cacciatore over linguine.  Capers.  Wine.

 

[MetsFan5]

1 hour ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

Dinner for a wintry work night:

 

 

 

Leftover chicken cacciatore over linguine.  Capers.  Wine.

 

 

  Looks delicious. I can and have eaten capers by the teaspoonful. Hope you were safe in this weather. 

[ProfessionalHobbit]

Cala (149 Fell Street (Van Ness Avenue) in Hayes Valley) has the worst service at any restaurant I've ever been to, and that is saying something. San Francisco has a wealth of good establishments (despite my feelings (mostly because we've been eating at the wrong places)). After today's experience, strike this one off the list and here is why:

 

* We were ignored for 15 minutes after being seated while FOH staff attended to two large parties in front of us who were seated at the same time we were;
* Staff described the menu to the aforementioned parties, we received only grudging, perfunctory treatment;
* The pickled vegetables that you see in the picture below were just laid down in front of us with no explanation whatsoever. Just as the server was about to walk away, B flagged her down and asked for a description;

* A minute after receiving the vegetables - which function as an amuse-bouche, a waiter arrived with drinks for the five and six-tops in front of us. He managed to smash one large goblet - somehow - while setting down the drinks, and in the process, doused accidentally B's clothes with alcohol. Shards of glass all over the carpet. No apologies whatsoever.

 

* After that incident, they didn't automatically reseat us; when we asked to be reseated, the waiter glared at us as if our request was out of the question, then relented.
* Most of the food is "meh". That's a pity because the menu reads well. At heart, it's overpriced Mexican food and there are much better elsewhere with a fraction of the preciousness.
* We ordered dessert. After handing us dessert spoons, they also laid down the check in front of us even though dessert was on the bill but BEFORE we had gotten them. Confronted with this faux pas, staff justified that by saying he thought I had asked for the "receipt". Also, I ordered mint tea which I never received. They comped the desserts...small comfort.

 

Stay away from here. You'll thank me later.

 

Oh, you want to see pictures of the food.  

 

Ok...

 

 

 

 

Left: apple-ginger mocktini with hisbiscus agua fresca.
Right: Hisbiscus agua fresca.

 

 

Dungeness crab tostada, celery root, habanero.

 

 

Abalone tostadas, trout roe, purple daikon.

 

These were "fine". They're basically corn chips with stuff on top. Sorry to sound harsh but you might say that the evening was already tainted.

 

 

Camaronillas with bay shrimp and carnitas.

 

 

Sopes playeros with black beans, crema and ricotta salata.

 

If you like thick corn cakes with no flavor and almost flavorless beans, these fit the bill.

 

 

 

Tamal with pork and achiote.

 

Probably the best thing we ate all evening. The tamal was steamed inside a banana leaf.

 

 

Opah salpicón with puntarella and cilantro, served with warm tortillas.

 

Basically a do-it-yourself fish taco. Second best thing we ate tonight.

 

 

Printing your dessert menu on dark blue paper is a great idea if you like your guests using pocket flashlights just to read them.

 

 

Buñelo with apples and ricotta. My mom-in-law loved it.

 

 

Flan de cajeta.

 

Rich and intense. Perfect, actually.

 

 

Blood orange sorbet.

 

[DianaB]

Sausage meat in brioche before and after cooking.  Should have photographed when sliced but didn’t.  Next time needs more filling and less brioche...

 

 

The ball of brioche top left was just to use up the rest of the dough.  Makes good toast.

 

[ProfessionalHobbit]

but the pastry work is awesome! 

[Duvel]

After running around the whole day, visiting a temple and fighting our way through the "spectacular" Snoopy World in Sha Tin (seriously, don't go there) we came back at 18.30h, I was neither in the mood for shopping nor cooking. Thankfully most of the family opted for cornflakes and fruit (not pictured). For my FIL and me I dug out some goodies from the stockroom:

"Motsu" (intestines) flavoured corn crisps.

Braised camel meat from Xinjiang, China.

 

 

followed by:

Ippudo Ramen, spicy red miso flavour (from Kyushu, Japan, given by a very dear friend). Veeeery good !

La Mian Laksa from Singapore (referenced recently by @Anna N).

 

 

Enjoyed with two fine Japanese beers. Lovely meal with zero work ...

 

 

[chileheadmike]

Chicken and green chile enchiladas with  RG pinto beans. And a messy stove.

[Tropicalsenior]

2 hours ago, ProfessionalHobbit said:

but the pastry work is awesome! 

 I'm so sorry that you had a terrible night. Things like this just infuriate me, especially, when I read at the bottom of the menu that they charged you 25% more just to treat you like this. Call me a busybody, but I sent this page to both contacts listed for the restaurant and to friends and family living in the San Francisco area. And, I urge all of our members, who have an extra minute on their hands today, to do the same. I think of it as saving future unsuspecting diners. This wasn't just an isolated bad night, this was bad attitude and lack of training.

Edited February 18, 2018 by Tropicalsenior
spelling error (log)

[kayb]

10 hours ago, dcarch said:

Happy New Year! Lunar New year, It's the Year Of The Dog.

 

Have been invited to a couple of New Years feasts. Amazing food.

Although not feeling to cook another big meal, still need to celebrate to bring good luck.

For Year Of The Dog, Hot dogs seem appropriate. :-)

 

dcarch

 

 

Now, that's just cute. Happy New Year!

[liamsaunt]

3 hours ago, chileheadmike said:

Chicken and green chile enchiladas with  RG pinto beans. And a messy stove.

 

Hey we have the same stove!  I hate the range, I think it cooks way too hot.  I have to use diffusers most of the time.  Do you have the same issue?  The oven and the broiler are nice though.  I'm doing a kitchen renovation and swapping this stove out for a dual fuel range.  I'm keeping it though--I have two kitchens so am moving this one over to the kitchen I don't use as often, to replace an older stove.  I mostly use the oven and broiler in that kitchen, not the range, so it will function nicely.

 

Last night, black sea bass with a tomato-saffron sauce and fennel confit and a seared scallop, and toasted fregeola.

 

 

 

[Anna N]

Except for the tomato sauce which was truly moan-worthy (in a good way), this was mostly a failure.  Beneath the tomato sauce is a piece of commercially frozen cod.   It never had much going for it and following the preparation instructions only made it that much worse. It was horribly over-cooked. The green beans are dressed with homemade orange powder but it too was lacking in flavour. The tomato sauce was my take on this recipe. I have made it many times before following the instructions and ingredients and it is very, very good.  Last night I neither had the time nor did I want quite so much oil in the finished product.  So I cranked the oven to 375°F, cut the cocktail tomatoes in half and tossed them with a little salt, a little olive oil and some sliced basil leaves. I roasted them for 30 minutes before giving them a good stir and roasting them for an additional 30 minutes.  A few of them had a bit of a char which did no harm at all.  I was very glad I was alone in the house because I honestly let out a moan of pleasure when I tried them. 

[Shelby]

Pheasant schnitzel--one with mushroom gravy, one with a simple squirt of lemon.  Very good.