Dinner 2018

[liuzhou]

Just now, Ann_T said:

@liuzhou  WOW!!!!!   I so want to eat at your house. 

 

 

Just drop in next time you are passing. Turn north at Hong Kong.

[Shelby]

Fried dove breasts in southern tomato gravy over rice. Squash casserole and cucumber salad on the side.

 

[shain]

Yesterday's supper. Hand cut fettuccine and pesto, both I had forzen last month.

Edited October 5, 2018 by shain (log)

[KennethT]

@BonVivant Your photos are making Taiwan jump a lot closer to the top of my list!

[mgaretz]

Cabbage soup made in the IP, served with salad.

 

 

 

[Nicolai]

It's Friday and still waking up from the Thursday partiyng.

 

It all started very tame with a special early dinner at a Palestinian restaurant serving the famous Palestinian Musakhan.

 

1- Starters

 

- Qudsieh (Hummos - Foul/Fava Beans - Chickpeas) Typical Palestinian dish with the name derived from Al Quds which is Jerusalem in English

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

- Mutabal (Aubergine Tahineh dip) Levant Dish

 

 

 

 

2- Main dish

 

- Musakhan which is a typical Palestinian dish with roasted chicken with the main spice being Sumac which gives the dish it's sourness mixed with caramelized Onions to sweeten it and a sprinkling of either Pine Nuts or Almonds as in our dish. The whole chicken and mixture rests on a Taboon bread.

You enjoy the chicken by tearing the Taboon bread and mixture and wrapping it around a tender and juicy chicken sliver while your taste buds explode in a burst of sweet and sour sparkles. The sweat pearls sliding gently on your forehead....... Forget about the makeup and aftershave......

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

- and a close up

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3- Dessert

 

No dinner is complete without a Dessert. I have a red line not to be crossed....... Ughh sometimes...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And I chose these:

 

 

- Kunafeh bel Jebn two ways: Fine crust on the left and coarse shredded crust on the right both filled with the Palestinian famous Nabulsi white cheese.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

- and I also had this small selection before getting the disapproving looks from my wife.

All clotted cream or cheese filled

 

 

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and after some strong fresh mint teas. We needed some more substantial libations and went clubbing as usual

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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and morning came quickly and in the morning you hit breakfast before hitting the sack as the beach is calling in the afternoon and then the whole saga starts again.....

Weekends are hard work.......

 

This time we had to make do with the Turkish Simit bread filled with cheese - ham....... etc

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good night and Good Morning to all  😎

 

 

Edited October 5, 2018 by Nicolai (log)

[shain]

Eggplants in hot-sour-sweet garlic and soy sauce.

Mapo tofu, vegetarian, with mushrooms rather than meat, served with rice noodles.

 

[kayb]

@Nicolai -- I now have two new recipes in my file, as you sent me to Google to find both knafeh and musakhan, and both sound marvelous! Now, one day when I'm not busy, and feeling ambitious....

 

 

[Anna N]

 

Beef short ribs, onion salsa and sweet potatoes baked with miso and maple syrup. 

[ElsieD]

Sous vide Jamaican jerk lamb chops, caramalized banana rice and tomatoes.

[Dejah]

7 hours ago, Nicolai said:

Musakhan which is a typical Palestinian dish with roasted chicken with the main spice being Sumac which gives the dish it's sourness mixed with caramelized Onions to sweeten it and a sprinkling of either Pine Nuts or Almonds as in our dish. The whole chicken and mixture rests on a Taboon bread.

You enjoy the chicken by tearing the Taboon bread and mixture and wrapping it around a tender and juicy chicken sliver while your taste buds explode in a burst of sweet and sour sparkles. The sweat pearls sliding gently on your forehead....... Forget about the makeup and aftershave

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😎

 

 

 

Made this dish for some international students in my class a few years ago. hard to find sumac, but luckily, one of the professors had some! We all loved the dish. Now, I see many supermarkets carry sumac!

Need to bring this up front again!

[Dejah]

We have a group of 4 couples where the guys have been childhood friends. Every year, I host a dinner around Nov before one couple goes to winter in Malaysia. This year, we had it yesterday as it was one of wives' 70th birthday.

I made her request - Paella. She had it for the first time at our 2017 gathering.  I figured the pan was going to be pretty full, so I kept the mussels separate, steamed in white wine, Thai lime leaves, lemongrass, ginger and garlic.

                                                  

 

                                                  

 

There was enough leftover for supper for hubby and myself.

Dessert was Trifle. Jelly will forever be my "fails" whenever I have to use agar agar!

When we were in Malaysia visiting our friends whose wife is Muslim, I cooked a thank you Chinese dinner for 25 members of the family. For dessert, I had picked up Thai mangoes on our visit across the northern border and was making mango pudding with agar agar instead of Knor's gelatin. I had forgotten that fresh mangoes (like pineapple) must be cooked so the enzymes will not affect the gelling. When I remembered, I took the pudding out  and boiled it with agar already mixed in. When we were ready for dessert, the pudding pieces bounced like rubber balls!

So this time, I made the jello layer with agar agar again. I didn't realize it would set in 30 minutes! When I went to the fridge to check it so I could fold in the fruit, it was, again, solid!
My friends will forever remember my jello! But, we all enjoyed the trifle anyway!

 

                                                

                                                 

 

[Ann_T]

 

I was up early again this morning so I smoked at whole turkey breast before leaving for work.

We had toasted clubhouse sandwiches tonight for dinner.

With homemade double fried fries.

Shared board.

[chord]

Country style ribs cooked sous-vide for 36 hours

 

 

 

Served with braised celery and garlic bread with pesto (which I burned)

 

[HungryChris]

Salami grinders made it to the table last night. We were going to go to the casino for the buffet, but jut didn't have the energy.

HC

 

Edited October 6, 2018 by HungryChris (log)

[liuzhou]

8 hours ago, shain said:

Mapo tofu, vegetarian, with mushrooms rather than meat, served with rice noodles. 

 

Looks great. What kind of mushrooms did you use? Here it would be shiitake.

 

Vegetarian "mapo tofu" is a thing in Sichuan but is usually called mala tofu (麻辣豆腐 má là dòu fǔ) to differentiate. "Mapo" is usually reserved for the non-vegetarian version, which traditionally contains beef rather than pork.

[shain]

5 hours ago, liuzhou said:

 

Looks great. What kind of mushrooms did you use? Here it would be shiitake.

 

Vegetarian "mapo tofu" is a thing in Sichuan but is usually called mala tofu (麻辣豆腐 má là dòu fǔ) to differentiate. "Mapo" is usually reserved for the non-vegetarian version, which traditionally contains beef rather than pork.

 

Thank! I used mostly champignons, with a small amount of shitake. They have a very dominant flavor, while I wanted the mushrooms mostly for texture and umami. I was under the impression that ma la tofu usually refer to the dish made without the ground beef and without a substitute for it. 

 

[liuzhou]

26 minutes ago, shain said:

 

Thank! I used mostly champignons, with a small amount of shitake. They have a very dominant flavor, while I wanted the mushrooms mostly for texture and umami. I was under the impression that ma la tofu usually refer to the dish made without the ground beef and without a substitute for it. 

 

 

It can do, and probably most often does, but I have seen it with substitutes, too.

[THS]

Peking sauce pork. Based on the recipe here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57_RGUdgKf

It's definitely one of my favorite pork dishes.

I ate it with cucumber and spring onions and rice, because I hadn't the time to  make spring pancakes. 

 

[Smithy]

9 hours ago, chord said:

Country style ribs cooked sous-vide for 36 hours

 

 

 

Served with braised celery and garlic bread with pesto (which I burned)

 

 

That looks good, and a better result than I've had for country-style ribs in a very long time. What temperature did you use at the sous vide stage? What were the finishing steps that produced that glaze?

[liuzhou]

Tonight, I had the honour to be invited to a family reunion. A local family kind of "adopted" me many years ago. Their young daughter was just starting high school, when I met them. Later she went to university here in China and then to the UK to continue her education at master's level. On her return, she found work in Shanghai. This meant I haven't seen her in four years. Until tonight.

 

This past week has been a national holiday and she came home for the duration with her new fiancé. Well, her only ever fiancé. The dinner was for her to introduce her intended to the family and I felt very moved to be included in that group. And delighted to meet him. They were so obviously in love.

The only sad note was that her grandmother, now 95, couldn't remember me at all although she and I were great friends just a few years ago. Alzheimer's is so cruel. As her granddaughter told me, her body is strong but her mind has gone.

Anyway 11 of us ate:

Squid with celery and chillies

 

Pork with Mushrooms

 

Pork Ribs with, surprisingly CHIPS.

Greenery

 

This did not photograph well, but was delicious. Pork bone soup with cordycep militaris fungus.

 

Fish in a spicy broth

 

Mostly oddly, a second squid dish turned up. Different but equally good. With green and red chillies.

 

Sweet corn buns. I don't mean buns made from sweetcorn. I mean buns made from from corn which are sweet. Of course, I can't be sure because, sensibly, I didn't eat any.

Steamed pork with taro.

 

Pork with mushrooms

 

This is a Liuzhou speciality. Ducks feet and snails in a fiery sauce.

Apologies for the photograph. Duck stew.

 

Stir fried  cabbage

 

Shrimp or prawns.

 

[shain]

Hummus with pine nuts, and chili infused tatbila sauce.

Freshly baked pita breads.

 

[BonVivant]

KennethT, thanks! Taiwan is quite popular with regional tourists but it's often overlooked by tourists from the West. They all go to Hong Kong, Thailand, Vietnam etc.

 

And this is one of the reasons I am here:

 

Roast goose and duck are common in HK, in Taiwan it's boiled goose. This is my second plate.

 

 

The restaurant gets busy fast, they probably have a good reputation despite being in an unassuming location.

 

[Anna N]

@liuzhou

 Please, please reassure me that the reunion took place in the restaurant. Surely nobody would attempt that at home!   It all looks so delicious.  

[liuzhou]

1 minute ago, Anna N said:

@liuzhou

 Please, please reassure me that the reunion took place in the restaurant. Surely nobody would attempt that at home!   It all looks so delicious.  

 

It was in a restaurant, but I have had meals that substantial in family homes, especially that family's home. Chinese New Year dinners can be like that, for example.