Dinner 2020

[ambra]

I’ve been back and forth to Tuscany (to see family and house hunt) this last month and am finally back to stay (as my son has to go back to school soon) -- with 67 bottles of wine (I am part of a couple of buying groups down there and am a regular at a particular store that offers me bulk discounts), one loaf of Tuscan bread (yep, I do like saltless bread!) and a half kilo of Ricciarelli (the almond cookie from Siena).

 

Not much food in the house though. So I sent my husband to grab something to cook while I dealt with suitcases and the rest.

 

He came back with chicken breast, a bag of salad and tomatoes. So there you have it. Just a regular salad with pan-fried chicken.

 

 

While we waited for our grocery delivery, we defrosted some meat sauce and had it over mezzi paccheri, which my MIL calls “vergogna cuoco” meaning they make the chef look bad because even if a portion might weigh the same as other more voluminous pasta, the portion always looks small. 😊

 

Then there was pan-fried salmon with roasted potatoes and homemade old-school dill sauce with raw carrots for dipping in the extra sauce. Dill is not popular in Italy but I can find it dry at one supermarket chain in the north. But I also try to grow it on my balcony. This one has the last of my fresh dill (it all seemed to die while I was away. )

 

 

And finally, there is no good pizza in my neighborhood (The shame!). It is very, very thick and always has too many toppings where we are (think Chicago style) unless we seek out Neapolitan style but I don’t like the ones by us. So we make our own. Actually my husband makes it for us. 😊 He just makes it the way his mother taught him, so no match for all of yours, but perfectly satisfying.

 

And here are some ricciarelli. My favorite bakery closed down, so this is from one of my two second favorites.  Extremely delicious cookies. 

 

[liamsaunt]

Seared scallops over thin spaghetti with burst cherry tomatoes and basil

 

[mgaretz]

12 hours ago, gfweb said:

SV time and temp?

8 hours at 131f.

[shain]

Pizza. Neapolitan style dough.

 

Ricotta, spinach, mozzarella, tomatoes, pepper.

Bechamel, artichoke, rosemary. After baking - toasted pistachio, parmesan, lemon zest, pepper.

 

 

[Margaret Pilgrim]

4 hours ago, weinoo said:

 

Maryland style crab cake, house made cocktail sauce, duck fat roasted potatoes (seems like some cracklings were in the fat!), Savoy slaw.

 

Another candidate for my last supper.

[Ann_T]

Last night's dinner.

Pan seared halibut finished in a hot oven with buttered rice and spinach.

And for dessert, I made fudge.

I had a craving. 

[Kim Shook]

@David Ross – I think those ribs sound and look delicious!  Saving your recipe to try. 

 

Last night dinner was corn, SV ginormous pork chop with a caramelized onion/BBQ sauce/Pork jus sauce and fixed up Kraft mac and cheese and a salad (not pictured):

 

Went all Red River Rib Co. and served sweet rolls with the pork:

The Red River Rib Co. in Richmond VA (now defunct) served good ribs and steaks and salads in the 1970’s and when you sat down they brought a little bucket of sweet rolls.  They kept them coming throughout the whole meal.  The combination of sweet rolls and ribs was perfect and something we do every so often. 

[curls]

Meant to post this back in July but just getting back to posting images. A duck dinner cooked in one of my Darto pans. Was very happy to find that Restaurant Depot stocks frozen duck breasts at far less than supermarket prices. All the duck fat is being saved in the freezer for future potato cookery (and other potential uses).

[Paul Bacino]

23 minutes ago, curls said:

Meant to post this back in July but just getting back to posting images. A duck dinner cooked in one of my Darto pans. Was very happy to find that Restaurant Depot stocks frozen duck breasts at far less than supermarket prices. All the duck fat is being saved in the freezer for future potato cookery (and other potential uses).

cool to know

[scamhi]

2 hours ago, curls said:

Meant to post this back in July but just getting back to posting images. A duck dinner cooked in one of my Darto pans. Was very happy to find that Restaurant Depot stocks frozen duck breasts at far less than supermarket prices. All the duck fat is being saved in the freezer for future potato cookery (and other potential uses).

of you score the skin side almost down to the meat more fat will be released.

[curls]

5 minutes ago, scamhi said:

of you score the skin side almost down to the meat more fat will be released.

These were cooked sous vide and then seared. When I do them this way I don’t always score the skin. When I cook them solely on the cooktop (or cooktop plus oven) I do crosshatch cuts thru the skin. Now that I have a case of duck breasts in the freezer, I’m trying out various cooking methods and trying to figure out what my favorite way is to cook them.

[scamhi]

shrimp and green bean stir fry and Ryujin Kakushi Ginjo Dragon God

Shrimp and string beans were seasoned with sambal oelek, mirin, hoisin, garlic, ginger scallions

[chefmd]

Bay scallops with roasted peppers.

[TicTac]

Somewhat pedestrian following shrimps and scallops - but hey, sometimes the simple things in life bring the most joy!  
 

Grilled wings w dry rub

 

Served with dill sauce, fries and veggie sticks.  When you can’t go to the bistro pub, you bring the bistro to you!

[Margaret Pilgrim]

9 minutes ago, TicTac said:

Somewhat pedestrian following shrimps and scallops - but hey, sometimes the simple things in life bring the most joy!  
 

Grilled wings w dry rub

 

Served with dill sauce, fries and veggie sticks.  When you can’t go to the bistro pub, you bring the bistro to you!

I'm in!

[pastameshugana]

I baked my first sourdough today using 'Reinhard', my new pet starter. It's an organic rye and water, I've been feeding for about a week.

 

The flavor of the bread was great, but it was a little more dense than I'd prefer. I think it's because I ended up with too much dough and tried to force it into three baguettes, rather than holding some back - so I didn't get enough stretch on my shaping and ended up with HEAVY loaves.

 

Mr's M made a breakfast hash with veggies and sausage, egg and avocado on top. This certainly hit the spot!

 

Paper plates when all the kids are home. It might not be environmentally friendly, but it's certainly clean up friendly.

[BKEats]

Been working on a vegan picadillo... Up next is tvp and lentils... The picadillo flavoring is there, with raisins, olives, tomatoes, cumin and such... But, the protein is the issue.. I tried beyond crumbles which tasted of peas and their feisty flavoring.. The problem is, you can't penetrate the crumbles with flavor so, it's like the sauce and protein are separate.. These meat crumbles are their own independent city states of feisty flavorings. So, a bean will allow the sauce to penetrate maybe the tvp will.   Black beans with sofrito, are on point. Bay, cumin, garlic, pepper, i added some sour orange, a little vinegar, not enough for one thing to stand out.. Basic rice, avocado with a sour orange mojo and red onion.  

Was very happy with almost everything.. Need to work on the vegadillo but, right now it's still pretty damn good. 

 

Sofrito:  I have a shitty stick blender. 

 

beans, i like a brighter pepper in the beans.   i use a little more liquid than normal and strained the beans right before added the sofrito, i mixed the beans and slowly added the rest of the liquid over the course of the next 45 minutes. 

 

 

Everything was good in this dish but, that fake shit: cauliflower, lentils, cauliflower and lentils?, i am not hopeful for tvp..  I don't know, this fake meat market is interesting.  It's clearly not meat, it's never going to taste like meat, why are we hung up on stuff tasting like meat if it's not meat.  No one has tried to make meat resemble a vegetable.  Just call me a bean counter. 

 

Edited September 2, 2020 by BKEats (log)

[heidih]

@BKEats I use the garden variety soyrizo which has its own favoring already and for me meshes with the flavor profile of picadillo. . My palate is not that sensitive. Often squeeze it in small chunks out of the chubb and bake to give it more of an edge and add briefly to a dish. Nice salty snack too.  Kenji did a homemade version a while back - but it was more effort than I wanted just for me.   https://www.seriouseats.com/2015/02/how-to-make-vegan-chorizo.html

Edited September 2, 2020 by heidih (log)

[weinoo]

Oh god - just eat vegetables and legumes and grains and fruits.  Stop pretending. 

 

And if you miss meat that much, eat it.

 

Though I can guess at what @BKEats is up to.

Edited September 2, 2020 by weinoo (log)

[gfweb]

@curls How do you access Restaurant Depot if you aren't in the business?

[curls]

1 hour ago, gfweb said:

@curls How do you access Restaurant Depot if you aren't in the business?

I went pro with my chocolate business several years ago and have the right paperwork to get into Restaurant Depot.
 

I have heard that if you belong to certain BBQ clubs, they can get access to Restaurant Depot. May also be that they have relaxed the rules during Covid. Around Virginia a lot of the restaurant distributors are advertising that they will now sell to the general public.

[liuzhou]

Took one of these duck leg/thigh combos, skinned and largely de-fatted it, then braised the leg for an hour with garlic, tangerine skin, green Sichuan peppercorns, chilli. Let it cool then shredded the meat. Skin and fat is in fridge to be rendered down tomorrow.

 

 

Prepared some carrot, daikon radish, coriander leaf, and garlic scapes.

 

 

Stuffed the meat and veg into these wheaten wrappers, dressed with Sriracha from Sriracha and ate a bunch of them.

 

 

 

Edited September 2, 2020 by liuzhou (log)

[KennethT]

@liuzhou We need a drool button...  Do you make the wrappers or are they easily available where you are?

[liuzhou]

5 minutes ago, KennethT said:

@liuzhou We need a drool button...  Do you make the wrappers or are they easily available where you are?

 

I have made them in the past, but seldom do. Very easy for me to find - and cheaper than I could make them myself. They are known as 面皮 (miàn pí), meaning 'wheat skins'.

[liamsaunt]

Coconut curry cusk