Dinner 2020

[Captain]

Left over Brisket that I had always intended for pie's.  Yum!

[liamsaunt]

It is cold and rainy here, so I decided to make soup for supper. Of course, my family being the way they are, I had to make three kinds of soup for five people 🙄

 

I made a batch of popovers, acceptable to all

 

 

For my nephew, black bean soup

 

 

For my niece, butternut squash-tortilla-chile soup 

 

 

For my husband, my sister, and myself, fish chowder

 

[BeeZee]

Avert your eyes, all haters of GBP...in the interest of waste not, had to do something with these which DH purchased in error last week. Vegetarian stuffing with kasha, shallot, garlic, and tomato. A little grated parm. We ate all 4 of them.

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

9 minutes ago, BeeZee said:

Avert your eyes, all haters of GBP...in the interest of waste not, had to do something with these which DH purchased in error last week. Vegetarian stuffing with kasha, shallot, garlic, and tomato. A little grated parm. We ate all 4 of them.

 

These are not normal times.

 

[robirdstx]

 

Grilled Chicken Thigh and Green Beans

 

[KennethT]

Finally, after 5 years of trials, I got this dish where I want it.... Singapore style chicken curry with homemade roti prata and stir fried gai lan

 

 

Edited March 30, 2020 by KennethT (log)

[Margaret Pilgrim]

32 minutes ago, KennethT said:

Finally, after 5 years of trials, I got this dish where I want it.... Singapore style chicken curry with homemade roti prata and stir fried gai lan

 

 

 

Both bowl and bread look fabulous.   Bread "crumb: or flakiness particularly perfect.    Any pointers?

[KennethT]

41 minutes ago, Margaret Pilgrim said:

Both bowl and bread look fabulous.   Bread "crumb: or flakiness particularly perfect.    Any pointers?

Thanks! For the curry, I made the rempah and cooked a quadruple batch of the curry (without the chicken) then divided and froze. That's what I usually do. This time I added a bit of new coconut milk during the cooking of the chicken which really perked it up. It was just as addictive as I remember it being in a kopitiam in Singapore.

 

For the prata, it's actually a relatively lean dough. For this version it was 600g flour with approx 10.8% protein. I made this using 118g 7% protein cake flour and 482g of 11.7% KAF all purpose. To this about 1t salt 1T sugar 15ml grapeseed oil 300ml water and 1 egg. Mixed by hand and let sit covered for about an hour or so. After that, I could actually knead it without using any extra flour. I kneaded it in several sessions of about 5 minutes each, separated by 20 min of rest. Divided into 8 balls, rolled in grapeseed oil, then sit in ramekins covered for a few hours. Then sit in the fridge overnight. This afternoon I froze 6 and stretched 2 a few minutes before the chicken was finished. Cooked until brown on both sides on a med-high pan with a bit of grapeseed oil. I think the key is lots of kneading interspersed with lots of rest to relax the gluten.

Edited March 30, 2020 by KennethT (log)

[Steve Irby]

Roast beet salad with whipped goat cheese.  The goat cheese is a recipe from Alon Shaya and is just terrific.

 

A dish we never get tired of shrimp and grits gussied up with scallops.

 

[mgaretz]

3 hours ago, KennethT said:

Thanks! For the curry, I made the rempah and cooked a quadruple batch of the curry (without the chicken) then divided and froze. That's what I usually do. This time I added a bit of new coconut milk during the cooking of the chicken which really perked it up. It was just as addictive as I remember it being in a kopitiam in Singapore.

 

For the prata, it's actually a relatively lean dough. For this version it was 600g flour with approx 10.8% protein. I made this using 118g 7% protein cake flour and 482g of 11.7% KAF all purpose. To this about 1t salt 1T sugar 15ml grapeseed oil 300ml water and 1 egg. Mixed by hand and let sit covered for about an hour or so. After that, I could actually knead it without using any extra flour. I kneaded it in several sessions of about 5 minutes each, separated by 20 min of rest. Divided into 8 balls, rolled in grapeseed oil, then sit in ramekins covered for a few hours. Then sit in the fridge overnight. This afternoon I froze 6 and stretched 2 a few minutes before the chicken was finished. Cooked until brown on both sides on a med-high pan with a bit of grapeseed oil. I think the key is lots of kneading interspersed with lots of rest to relax the gluten.

 

 

We just used that last of our frozen roti paratha tonight and my wife won't let me go to the Indian market to buy more, so I may try your recipe, but all I have is regular AP flour, and same market story.  How do you think it would be with all AP flour?

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Hsiao-Ching Chou simple stir-fried greens.  Comfort food.

 

[CantCookStillTry]

My husband made Guinness Braised Lamb Chops today with the meat I got out of the freezer (and we both knew I'd have no motivation to do anything with). 

I made the Mash so I get like 80% of the dinner making points 🤷‍♀️

 

[TicTac]

@KennethT - Just took out a pack of organic chicken bone in thighs for curry tonight - would love to hear more about your version above - I was going to go the Thai route, but I am happy to veer slightly off my flight course....(assuming I have the ingredients on hand!).

 

 

[KennethT]

6 hours ago, mgaretz said:

 

We just used that last of our frozen roti paratha tonight and my wife won't let me go to the Indian market to buy more, so I may try your recipe, but all I have is regular AP flour, and same market story.  How do you think it would be with all AP flour?

I think it depends on your AP flour.  The King Arthur all purpose flour that I have says that it has an 11.7% protein content.  The flour company that supplies basically all the prata guys in Singapore says their prata flour is 10.8%.  Is that close enough?  I have no idea and not nearly enough prata (or any bread for that matter) experience to say...  So I did what most engineers would have done, I created a 10.8% flour as a mixture of the KAF 11.7% and some cake flour to bring it down.  I've read that, depending on manufacturer and time of year, AP flour's protein content can vary quite a bit, so yours might already be where it needs to be...

 

In the past, I've done it with regular AP flour, but then I also used a LOT more oil at that time.  As you might imagine with over 10x the amount of oil, that dough was very relaxed and easy to stretch (to the point of maybe being too easy and the layers all recombined after folding).  This dough was not easy to stretch at all and I was quite worried about it, but I can't argue with the results...

 

I would try to make your own though - it's a lot healthier.  Most store bought prata use margarine or other trans fats which are horrible for you.  Doing it yourself, you can control what type of oil to use.  I probably could have used olive oil - as long as I had one that didn't have a lot of flavor.

[KennethT]

14 minutes ago, TicTac said:

@KennethT - Just took out a pack of organic chicken bone in thighs for curry tonight - would love to hear more about your version above - I was going to go the Thai route, but I am happy to veer slightly off my flight course....(assuming I have the ingredients on hand!).

 

 

I based the curry on this video...

 

but I make the rempah, fry it, add the coconut milk and simmer for a bit, then divide and freeze to make it easier for myself - also, we're only 2 people so we typically make only 4 thighs at a time (a lot less than a whole chicken) so I find that if I double her proportions (eyeballing) I make 4 meals worth.  I also dilute my curry out of the freezer with about a cup of water since my curry for the freezer is a bit reduced.  Otherwise it's way too thick for prata, but would be good with rice.  That's also why I needed to add the 'fresh' coconut milk which perks it up again.  I also marinated my thighs with a bit of salt, msg, sugar and turmeric powder before adding to the curry to cook.  I'm not a big fan of her prata - she does hers the more Malay style using condensed milk which I think makes the prata too sweet.  The Singapore style is typically not as sweet as the Malaysian.  If you make the prata, make sure it rests for a few hours between kneading and stretching otherwise it will never stretch!  It'll be like a rubber band!

[liuzhou]

Chicken with mixed wild mushrooms, black beans, chilli, garlic, ginger, Chinese chives etc. Served with rice and baby bok choy (not pictured). 

 

[Ann_T]

 

Shopped on my way to work yesterday and picked up what I needed to make chicken chop suey for dinner last night.

[rotuts]

@BeeZee 

 

you wont waste those GBP if you compost them .

 

just saying.

[heidih]

1 hour ago, rotuts said:

@BeeZee 

 

you wont waste those GBP if you compost them .

 

just saying.

 

That is just what she needs - an infection of them growing in her compost pile  

[Shelby]

Fried chicken for Sunday dinner

 

[mgaretz]

3 hours ago, KennethT said:

the layers all recombined after folding

Folding?  I was sure that roti paratha required folding layers, but I was attracted to your version because it didn’t have any folding. 😉. Does your recipe above require folding?

[KennethT]

58 minutes ago, mgaretz said:

Folding?  I was sure that roti paratha required folding layers, but I was attracted to your version because it didn’t have any folding. 😉. Does your recipe above require folding?

Not folding like a croissant - the dough requires stretching so that it's super thin so you can see through it.  The professionals do this by constantly flipping it over an oiled steel table, but I am not nearly experienced enough to do that, so I put the rested dough ball on an oiled countertop, smush it into a disk, then going around in a circle grab a piece of the edge, lift and then pull, going around an around until it is stretched thin.  Then take a bit of oil and smear it on the top surface and roll the stretched sheet into a snake - you can also fold it - say 2/3 over, then the other 1/3, then roll into a snake.  You then take the snake and coil it around and tuck the tail underneath.  Press teh coil into a disk and fry with a tiny bit of oil on a medium/medium-high pan, flipping once.  I think the video I posted above shows her stretching the prata, near the end of the video....

Edited March 30, 2020 by KennethT (log)

[Duvel]

“Himmel un Ääd” (heaven & earth), made with a great boudin noir from Strasbourg, buttery potato purée and my mothers apple sauce (curtesy of our freezer) ... comfort food at its best 🤗

 

Edited March 30, 2020 by Duvel (log)

[mgaretz]

1 hour ago, KennethT said:

Not folding like a croissant - the dough requires stretching so that it's super thin so you can see through it.  The professionals do this by constantly flipping it over an oiled steel table, but I am not nearly experienced enough to do that, so I put the rested dough ball on an oiled countertop, smush it into a disk, then going around in a circle grab a piece of the edge, lift and then pull, going around an around until it is stretched thin.  Then take a bit of oil and smear it on the top surface and roll the stretched sheet into a snake - you can also fold it - say 2/3 over, then the other 1/3, then roll into a snake.  You then take the snake and coil it around and tuck the tail underneath.  Press teh coil into a disk and fry with a tiny bit of oil on a medium/medium-high pan, flipping once.  I think the video I posted above shows her stretching the prata, near the end of the video....

 

 

Thanks!

[heidih]

@KennethT  The spiral is how I've always made scallion bread. Lovely layers. This recipe  https://app.ckbk.com/recipe/chin64494c08s001r020/pan-fried-scallion-chive-breads