Dinner 2019

[Okanagancook]

The other night was frites, mushrooms in wine sauce, steak  with chimichurri sauce and a salad.  The plate with the steak is a bit 'brown' but tasted good.  Not winning any plating prizes!

[CantCookStillTry]

Apologies. Slow Cooker, six hours on low, no liquid. Meat was premarinated and the instructions I recieved were from he who raised the Moo and prepped its meat. My own googling leads me to believe not long enough for the collagen to break down / maybe needed liquid? 

[Norm Matthews]

I have a recipe  we liked for chicken breasts, spinach and cream sauce but this time I substituted thighs and peas and added spaghetti.  I thought I'd use the thighs and forgot there was spinach in it so used the peas.

[Kim Shook]

2 hours ago, CantCookStillTry said:

Apologies. Slow Cooker, six hours on low, no liquid. Meat was premarinated and the instructions I recieved were from he who raised the Moo and prepped its meat. My own googling leads me to believe not long enough for the collagen to break down / maybe needed liquid? 

My take is it needed LOTS more time - 8-10 hours on low and liquid.  Honestly, as much as I love my slow cooker for many things, braising red meat is not one of them.  Slow cookers are supposed to cook at 200F on low, but I doubt it.  I have multiples of them and I think they all cook higher than that on low.  I prefer to braise my short ribs covered, in the oven at 300F for five hours.  Like this.  I also do them on top of the stove like this.

[gfweb]

 

3 hours ago, CantCookStillTry said:

Apologies. Slow Cooker, six hours on low, no liquid. Meat was premarinated and the instructions I recieved were from he who raised the Moo and prepped its meat. My own googling leads me to believe not long enough for the collagen to break down / maybe needed liquid? 

 

For short ribs I like braising (covered ) at 300 F for 3 or 4 hours....half submerged in red wine with garlic, onions, carrot chunks, splash of soy...let it rest for hours...reheat and serve.  Usually great. 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

 

 

Last of my recent salmon.  Too much protein, too much food.  Just enough methode rotuts.

 

[scamhi]

roast Joyce Farms chicken ( zuni'd for 2 days)

Sauteed broccoli with garlic, anchovy, and chili flakes

[liuzhou]

Chicken, "some kind of mushroom", olives, chilli, scallion in a lemon sauce. Rice.

 

[Shelby]

Breakfast the night before last--starring crawfish boudin.  SO good.

 

Then last night was calzones-- hot Italian sausage, mushroom and lots of gooey mozzarella cheese and some of the homemade cottage cheese

 

 

[suzilightning]

Jasmine rice, long cooked green beans and a recipe from Cajun Kosher cookbook - Lemon chicken.  Works well the first day; using thin sliced chicken breast doesn't work well as a reheat.  I think a thicker cut would reheat better.

Just heading out to the kitchen to prep the veg for the Drunken Shrimp recipe for John's dinner later.

[Raamo]

On 3/22/2019 at 3:51 PM, TdeV said:

 

@Raamo, looks intriguing! What are the ingredients? Title and author of the cookbook?

 

 

Long list mostly spices - first I made the sauce and then added things to it along with the eggs.

 

Book is 1000 Indian Recipes by Neelam Batra

 

It's our favorite Indian cook book we've found.

 

[BetD]

19 hours ago, Okanagancook said:

My favourite Vietnamese dish, Bun Bo, from The Best of Nicole Routhier.  This is a great cookbook....small but packs a punch.  Basically it is shredded lettuce, shredded mint, shredded cucumber and bean sprouts as a base.  On top you place cooked thing rice noodles and on top of that is a mixture of stir fried beef, onion, lemon grass, garlic, curry powder then garnished with coriander leaves and toasted crushed peanuts.  Nuoc Cham with carrot is poured over the top.  (Nuoc Cham is fish sauce, rice vinegar, water, lime juice, sugar, chili and garlic).  It has so many textures from the chew beef, crunchy peanuts and snappy bean sprouts.  So good, we are having more tonight!

 

 Gosh, this looks so good. I get no hits when I search for the cookbook, and additional info on it?

[Okanagancook]

It's this one:   https://www.amazon.com/Best-Nicole-Routhier/dp/1556704364

Many excellent recipes in this book ...just 126 pages.

 

Here is the recipe for what she calls "Warm Rice Noodles with Stir-Fried Beef, Saigon Style"  or "Bun Bo"

 

1 lb thin rice vermicelli noodles which you soak in warm water for 20 minutes then cook in boiling salted water for 2 to 3 minutes then drain and rinse in cold water.

3 stalks lemon grass, thinly sliced

1.5 lb lean beef for stir frying, cut against the grain into thin 2 x 2 inch slices

2 tablespoons Vietnamese or Thai fish sauce

6 cloves garlic, chopped

3 teaspoons curry powder

black pepper

8 leaves of soft lettuce, thinly shredded

1/2 cup thinly shredded mint leaves

1 small cucumber, peeled, deseeded and finely shredded

1 cup fresh bean sprouts (I like to take the brown tails off)

3 tablespoons peanut oil

2 small onions, thinly sliced

2/3 cup unsalted pan toasted or dry roasted peanuts, chopped

coriander leaves for garnish

_______________

Nuoc Cham with carrot (make the whole recipe to ensure you have enough...if you are making the whole recipe above, she recommends making double this recipe for the sauce.)

 

2 small garlic cloves, crushed

1 small chile

2 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

1/4 cup rice vinegar

1/4 cup Vietnamese of Thai fish sauce

1/4 cup water

 

Crush the garlic, chile and sugar in a mortar until a paste.  Mix in all the other ingredients.

 

For the carrot to go in the sauce:  

1 small carrot, shredded finely

1 teaspoon sugar

 

toss the carrot in the sugar and let sit for 30 minutes then mix into the above sauce.

__________________

For the dish:

Mix 1 teaspoon of the curry powder, the fish sauce, 1/2 the garlic and black pepper together with the beef and marinate for 30 minutes.

 

In a large bowl combine the shredded lettuce, mint, cucumber and beans sprouts...toss to mix well.

Divide this mixture evenly amongst four bowls the top with the cooked, drained noodles and refrigerate until you are ready to cook the beef and finish the dish.

 

Heat the oil in a wok.  Add the remaining garlic and stir fry until fragrant.  Add the sliced onions, lemon grass and the remaining 2 teaspoons fo curry powder.  Stir fry until the onions are translucent, about 2 minutes.  Add the beef and stir fry over high heat until the beef is browned.

Top each bowl with 1/4 of the beef stir fry mixture.  Top with the peanuts and coriander leaves.  Serve with the Nuoc Cham.

 

This will make a lot of food.  I made about a 1/4 recipe for two of us.

It is also quite time consuming to make but really worthwhile.  It is a great dish for entertaining because it can all be made ahead apart from the stir frying.

 

 

[BetD]

6 minutes ago, Okanagancook said:

It's this one:   https://www.amazon.com/Best-Nicole-Routhier/dp/1556704364

Many excellent recipes in this book ...just 126 pages.

 

 

Thank you, I have a used copy coming my way.

[Okanagancook]

Excellent.  I was given mine by a friend for Christmas 1998!

 

Happy cooking.

[Paul Bacino]

This is my east meets west rif:

 

Broccoli Rabe- sauted in garlic,white wine, and pepper flake

Stanislaus sauce- quick cook garlic, basil, butter, onion

Rice noodles

 

[sartoric]

Drumstick sambhar (in deference to he who doesn’t like to “deal” with food on his plate, all the drumsticks have been scraped of flesh and skins discarded) with carrots, beans and potato.

 

 

Served with masala dosa, fresh tomato chutney and coconut sambol.

[heidih]

29 minutes ago, Paul Bacino said:

This is my east meets west rif:

 

Broccoli Rabe- sauted in garlic,white wine, and pepper flake

Stanislaus sauce- quick cook garlic, basil, butter, onion

Rice noodles

 

 

Those "rice noodles" look awfully transluscent - almost lke they have another starch in them. Quite toothsome looking.

[scamhi]

meatless Wednesday. Roast butternut squash with sauteed shiitake mushroom fresh sage and parsley. pasta water and fresh parmesan added after the picture

[robirdstx]

 

Chicken Fajitas with Spicy Black Beans

 

 

Marinated Chicken Breast ~ Grilled, sliced and finished on the stove with Onions and Jalapeños 

 

 

Served with fresh Guacamole and Salsa

 

 

[eugenep]

 Chicken Ballentine I put it in at 400° for 30 minutes and the breast meat was 180° so it dried out and didn’t taste that great because it was overcooked. 

[chord]

Sausage, roasted broccoli, scalloped potatoes

 

[heidih]

54 minutes ago, eugenep said:

 Chicken Ballentine I put it in at 400° for 30 minutes and the breast meat was 180° so it dried out and didn’t taste that great because it was overcooked. 

 

Do you think a moister environment would have produced a better result? Pretty v. tasty....

[eugenep]

1 minute ago, heidih said:

 

Do you think a moister environment would have produced a better result? Pretty v. tasty....

yeah..I should have slow cooked it at 325F. At 400F the outside would get crazy hot and dry out before the inside cooks which is what happened here. 

 

But I chose 400F because I needed the skin to brown. At 325F the skin would not brown in time. 

 

and I chose 400F because I was following the original recipe by Pepin at 

 

 

 

The Ballentine technique is technically brilliant but not easy (for me at least) to get the meat temperature perfect. 

 

I was super sad when I bit into that dry meat and dinner was not good. 

 

 

[weedy]

Sous Vide Berkshire pork chops with achiote glaze. Pear salsa. Rancho Gordo black beans and wild rice.