Dinner 2018

[Dejah]

9 hours ago, ElsieD said:

 

So if the trout is opened like a book, i understand the bottomlayer I think,  in that you would cover both halves.  So what is the top layer?  Another trout that gets put on top of the first one but also needs the stuffing so you put it on in reverse order so that each whole fish has the herbs in the same place?  I'm a bit confused.  Are we talking 2 fish or two halves of one fish?

I use only ONE fillet...and it's the "meat" in between the "greenery"

Bottom layer = greenery ( Cilantro, stalks of green onion, slivers of ginger, chili peppers, thin lime slices, Thai lime leaves, and bruised stalks of lemongrass, sprinkle of oil. Season fillet before piling on the greenery. ), then fillet, then greenery in reverse order:Lemongrass, lime leaves, lime slices...etc

[Dejah]

Got a line on fresh pickerel from lake Manitoba...
Lightly dusted with seasoned flour (Old Bay) then pan fried. Cauliflower and asparagus were lovely and good price today, so perfect for a quick meal on a busy gardening day!

                                                                

[HungryChris]

19 hours ago, kayb said:

Lord, how I envy you your seafood! We get so little here that isn't frozen...

 

Unfortunately, crappy seafood is easy to find around here, even though we live in the midst of some of the greatest fishing fleets in the world. I have lived near the docks as a kid,  worked in and around them as an adult. I used to scoff when locals approached the unloading vessels with cash in hand, but now feel that that may be the best way for a local to go. With complex distribution chains, too many middle men, such a perishable product, only the most fastidious and persistent purveyors do it right. Experience and a good knowledge of the product is your best friend and next to having a fish monger, you know and trust, is your only hope. I was lucky enough to work in a few good restaurants and at a great fish market and developed the ability to identify a good product when I see it. That, in itself, is one of my most  prized possessions.

HC

[HungryChris]

Chourico stuffed littleneck clams, a pretty decent salad, made for a good dinner last night. The salad included some hearts of palm that I simply took out of the can and shoved in with my marinated asparagus for a few days, a new fave!

HC

[Anna N]

29 minutes ago, HungryChris said:

The salad included some hearts of palm that I simply took out of the can and shoved in with my marinated asparagus for a few days, a new fave!

Nice idea. 

[Shelby]

Brussels sprout salad, fried shrimp and frog legs

 

[liuzhou]

Late dinner. Simple dinner. Linguine alle vongole.

 

 

[scubadoo97]

@Shelby  pecans on the salad?   Always a good addition 

[Shelby]

34 minutes ago, scubadoo97 said:

@Shelby  pecans on the salad?   Always a good addition 

Yeah it called for toasted almond slivers but I didn't have anything but pecans.  

[Paul Bacino]

Sicilian Rice bowl --Mussels,shrimp,cured lemon, capers, green olives--served on brown rice

 

 

Edited May 30, 2018 by Paul Bacino (log)

[scubadoo97]

20 minutes ago, Shelby said:

Yeah it called for toasted almond slivers but I didn't have anything but pecans.  

Pecans have more flavor anyway  and would go better IMO

[Duvel]

A brief (3 days) stop-over in Rome on the way back from Sardinia to Hong Kong ...

 

Dinner in a non-described Trattoria in the Monti neighbourhood:

 

 

Braised lamb intestines with artichokes. Well, all for me 

 

 

Roasted Guinea fowl with rosemary and olives. Very tender, very flavourful.

 

 

Homemade pasta with dried tomatoes, olives and wild fennel. Grated young Pecorino. Excellent.

 

 

Plenty of cheap & tasty house wine with it. Tagliatelle with Ragu for the little one ..

 

 

Followed by local Gelato and for yours truly a glass of Maker's Mark in the rental apartment with a view. Good times ...

 

 

[Anna N]

3 hours ago, Duvel said:

Roasted Guinea fowl with rosemary and olives. Very tender, very flavourful.

 

 

I am sorry but I cannot stop staring at this photograph. To me it looks like something that not only escaped from Jurassic Park but that escaped before they had perfected the technique. I see an animal with a very large head resting on its haunches. 

Edited May 30, 2018 by Anna N (log)

[chefmd]

Eggplant, zucchini, tomato, garlic, red onion stew with left over chicken (from office catered and not loved Caesar salad).

 

[Anna N]

 

Tonjiru—miso soup with pork and vegetables. 

 

 

Served. 

[KCWilkinson]

^^^ I can't unsee the dinosaur now 

 

My wife absolutely loves broccoli, but hates the stalks. I absolutely hate wasting perfectly good food, so I have to get creative with how I use the large amounts of "off" pieces sometimes.  

 

Tonight that resulted in some weird amalgam of a dish that was kind of burrito bowl-ish, kind of just random Mexican things on a plate.  Charred broccoli stalk with rice, beans, chevre, jalapeno, and baby oregano and cilantro from our deck garden.  Real tasty!

 

 

Edited May 31, 2018 by KCWilkinson (log)

[Ann_T]

I have a new toy. A LizzQ Pellet 12" Smoking Tube.

 

Turned my  gas grill into a smoker.

 

I ordered it two weeks ago and it arrived yesterday.

 

I went to three stores yesterday trying to find smaller bags of pellets. I was hoping to buy a variety of woods. Unfortunately, I could only find large bags so I went with the Green Mountain Grills Premium Texas blend. So now I have a 28 pound bag of pellets that I suspect will last me all summer, if not longer.

 

I wanted to try a rack of ribs and couldn't wait. So this morning I rubbed one rack of baby back ribs with fresh garlic, salt, pepper and a Cajun rub. Filled the tube, lite it with my new blow torch, bought for this purpose and let it burn for 10 minutes before blowing out the flame.

 

I have a six burner grill so I put the smoker on the right hand side of the grill. Place the ribs to the left of the tube, and turned on the next two burners on low. The temperature held steady at 300°F.

 

The ribs were tender in just under 3 hours. And had the wonderful smoked flavour I was hoping for.

 

 Moe and I just shared the rack as is. No sauces, no nothing. Just the ribs. Didn't even take time to take a photo. They were so good.

 

There was still more than an hour of smoke time left in the tube so I decided to let the grill cool, and then try cold smoking a piece of cheddar.

I'm not big on cheese, really not much of a dairy fan. But Matthew loves smoked cheese.

 

I cut a piece off of a brick of marbled cheddar and placed it on the top rack of the grill.

 

The pellet tube was under and just to the left of the cheese. In order to direct the smoke to the cheese, I draped a piece of foil loosely over the cheese and down so that the smoke was somewhat trapped.

I turned the cheese every 10 to 15 minutes. Just wanted to make sure it wasn't melting and sticking to the rack.

 

 

Here is what it looked like after about 50 minutes. You can see from the before and after photo that the cheese really took on some smoke. Smoke flavour is quite noticeable.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

8 hours ago, Duvel said:

A brief (3 days) stop-over in Rome on the way back from Sardinia to Hong Kong ...

 

Tell us about Sardinia!  According to 23andme I am 0.3% Sardinian.

 

[Duvel]

2 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

Tell us about Sardinia!  According to 23andme I am 0.3% Sardinian.

 

Will do ... in a separate thread. We attended a wedding and spend some days around the happy occasion sampling the food and the scenery. I'll put a mini food blog together once I am back in HK 

[liuzhou]

 

Another hot, hot day. Another salad.

 

Baby squid and clams with couscous, tomato and basil. With a side of green salad.

 

 

[KennethT]

@liuzhou Is lettuce easily available where you are?  I was under the impression that Chinese (and people in most of Asia) didn't eat raw greens, so I didn't think that lettuce would be widely available... then again, now that I'm thinking about it, the Vietnamese eat raw lettuce and herbs all the time, so maybe I answered my own question.

 

What do you wash it with?  I had always read that the water in most of Asia was not potable due to large amounts of diseases in it - hepatitis, typhoid, etc., hence why no one drinks tap water - but drink tea (which has been boiled) or bottled water.

[liuzhou]

 

10 minutes ago, KennethT said:

@liuzhou Is lettuce easily available where you are?

 

Yes, every market, supermarket and restaurant has it, although the locals usually cook it. As do I sometimes.

 

10 minutes ago, KennethT said:

What do you wash it with? 

 

Tap water.

The local water is fine. At least, I've never had a problem with it. I don't drink it, though. Some people (not locals) use bleach solutions or sterilising kits designed for babies' milk bottles. Totally unnecessary.  But I'm just talking about where I am.

 

As you say, Vietnam (and other SE Asian countries) do eat raw vegetation and happily wash it in the local public supply.

In 22 years in China, the only time I got food poisoning was in a Western restaurant in Xi'an.

Edited May 31, 2018 by liuzhou (log)

[HungryChris]

I made sauce and meatballs yesterday, before going out clamming, because I knew I would be worn out when I got back.

HC

[Duvel]

How to finish a day featuring St. Paul's basilica and the Sistines Chapel ? Pizza al Taglio 

 

Specifically at Boncis Pizzarium, close to Vatican City. 

 

 

Bonci has his classics and some reinterpretations with a twist.

 

 

 

We chose:

 

Fried aubergine (nothing beats that for me)

 

Spinach & Shiitake (with a mushroom garlic mousseline instead of a tomato sauce and sharp pecorino)

 

Yellow zucchini with cured pork neck (this was perfect - the zucchini super sweet and the pork neck salty and as fatty as guanciale. My favourite)

 

Onion and smoked pecorino (my wife's favourite)

 

 

Eaten just in front of the shop with a nice artisanal beer.

 

 

(On a side note: my wife had to stop me to buy my share of lovely different pizza flours the sell as well ...)

 

Edited May 31, 2018 by Duvel
Fixed link (log)

[Norm Matthews]

Charlie asked me to get some brats while I was at the store. I got beer brats and then thought, if I cook these in the smoker, I should put something else in to take up the rest of the room, so I got a slab of baby back ribs. We had the ribs for dinner.  The brats will become sandwiches sometime later in the week.

 

 

Edited May 31, 2018 by Norm Matthews (log)