Dinner 2021

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Ma Po tofu.

 

Dry fried green beans, rice, and wine not shown.  I cheated.  The beans were deep fried.  Does anyone really, really dry fry their beans these days?

 

[liuzhou]

1 hour ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 Does anyone really, really dry fry their beans these days?

 

 

Yes.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

8 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

 

Yes.

 

By what method do you or anyone really, really dry fry beans these days?

 

[liuzhou]

1 hour ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

By what method do you or anyone really, really dry fry beans these days?

 

 

Dry-frying in a wok is still a very common technique in Chinese cooking. For beans, I use the same technique as Fuchsia Dunlop gives in her "The Food of Sichuan (eG-friendly Amazon.com link)". Basically they are stir-fried in the wok with only a tablespoon or so of oil, for around 6 minutes. They are removed and some chillis, Sichuan peppercorns, finely chopped garlic, ginger and scallions are fried until fragrant then the beans returned to the wok and tossed to mix. Add salt and serve.

 

That said, she does suggest deep-frying as an alternative.
 

[liuzhou]

Here is my starter, tonight.

 

Steamed artichokes with ponzu dip. Oh yes!

 

 

The rest of dinner may turn up here later.

 

[liamsaunt]

11 hours ago, heidih said:

@liamsaunt That is interesting on dead yeast  - never in 50+ years had that happen. Wonder why. Any way your naan is enticing.

 

Well, it was old as dirt.  I am not sure how old, exactly, but it is possible that I brought it with me when I moved into this house eight years ago.  I found it stashed way in the back of my condiment fridge and decided to see if it was still viable.  I prefer to use saf-instant yeast.

 

Last night, blackened salmon with creamy avocado sauce over rice flavored with lime, scallions, cilantro, and black beans, topped with pickled onions, fire roasted corn (the Whole Foods frozen kind), roasted peppers, and cherry tomatoes.

 

[weinoo]

 

Paella, with chorizo, chicken, and wild gulf shrimp.  When the paella is finished (that is, when I turn off the heat), I put the raw shrimp on top of the rice and cover the whole thing  for around 5 minutes.  Shrimp steams in the residual heat and is super tender, moist and delicious that way.

 

Peas and carrots on the side.

 

Oh - the shells were used to make a stock, which was the liquid for this paella.

Edited May 6, 2021 by weinoo (log)

[David Ross]

20 hours ago, Kim Shook said:

@weinoo – love the plate with the trio of salads!  I’ve decided to make shrimp salad for a mother’s day tea on Sunday and I have to say your picture cemented that idea!

 

@Shelby – with your dental issues, I think I’d prescribe batch after batch of your lovely deviled eggs!  They should go down a treat!  And that swoony pie!

 

@alwaysdrawing – I very much like the look of your pasta and wish my first (and only, so far) try had been as successful.  I’ve determined that I’m going to try to find a pasta class when it is safe and get someone who truly knows what they are doing to help me figure it all out.

 

@David Ross – I think your beef braise looks scrumptious and bravo for going ahead and giving into your cravings “out of season”.  I decided some time ago that life is too short to live by food rules.  I now wantonly break my spaghetti in half, put cheese on seafood if I like, and crank up the AC and slow cook short ribs in July! 😁

 

Sunday night I made filets de hockey puck😡.  I got some nice filets and did them sous vide.  Haven’t yet figured out what was wrong, but they came out of the water underdone.  I popped them in the CSO to bring to temp, got distracted and seriously overcooked them.  Hence filet de hockey puck and Rice a Roni:

 

It was basically inedible.  We piled on the béarnaise and ate it anyway:

 

Luckily, I’d also made corn and wedge salads:

 

 

Night before last I did a sheet pan dinner that I’ve done before.  It is normally done with Italian sausage – this time I tried bratwurst.  We liked it even more.  Served with butter beans, Rice a Roni, slaw, and whomp cornmeal rolls:

 

 

Last night:

Aldi’s “famous” red bag chicken breast sandwiches, chips, and broccoli salad.  Aldi fans are wild about these frozen boneless chicken breast cutlets and put them right up there with Chick Fil A and Popeyes.  Not quite.  They are fine for no-work things that you can just chuck in the oven for 40 minutes.  But they do not measure up to CFA and don’t even approach Popeyes. 

all looks so delicious!

[Objective Foodie]

On 5/4/2021 at 11:20 PM, Duvel said:

Nice ! The chicken is done SV before searing ?

 

Ahh ... and more importantly: which wine ? 😊

Oops! Sorry for the late reply!

 

Yes, the chicken was done sous vide, primarily to ensure that the filling was properly sealed off by the meat. Then, dried and seared for a minute on high heat.

 

Hehe, it was a special occasion so we opened a bottle of Werlitsch Ex Vero II from 2006, a blend of Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc from Styria. His wines age incredibly well.

[Duvel]

Chicken gyros, zaziki and a Greek salat. I apologize in advance, as you will see this very frequently in the upcoming weeks - it is my „go to“ diet food ...

 

[scamhi]

boneless pork chops cut into 1"x1" strips marinated in Korean Kalbi sauce and grilled over charcoal. served with roasted zucchini, with garlic, mint and a splash of red wine vinegar.

Fontsainte Corbieres Gris de Gris Rose in the glass (after margaritas for cinco de mayo)

[heidih]

4 minutes ago, scamhi said:

boneless pork chops cut into 1"x1" strips marinated in Korean Kalbi sauce and grilled over charcoal. served with roasted zucchini, with garlic, mint and a splash of red wine vinegar.

Fontsainte Corbieres Gris de Gris Rose in the glass (after margaritas for cinco de mayo)

Nice finish on the pork and I am a huge fan of mint and garlic with zukes. 

[Panaderia Canadiense]

A seat-of-the-pants, holy-crap-it’s-already-8?!? what’s-in-the-fridge meal. I give you...

 

i can’t believe it’s not chicken carbonara! Made with chicken, maple smoked bacon, coffee cream, mushrooms, Vidalia onions sweated in cultured butter, and aaaalll the wrong spices.

 

It definitely was not carbonara, but it was glorious.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

On 4/28/2021 at 8:06 AM, rotuts said:

were you able to taste those steaks ?

Happily, my senses of taste and smell returned, more or less intact, around mid April. I would never have paid that much for a steak I didn’t think I’d be able to taste!

[patti]

BLT and Avocado salad.  Was aghast to discover we were out of red onion, so I had to make do with green onion. 
 

[liuzhou]

I haven't posted many dinners recently. It's been a strange week. Still is.

Wok-braised chicken with morels and Agaricus subrufescens or 姬松茸 (jī sōng róng), also known as almond mushroom, mushroom of the sun, God’s mushroom, mushroom of life, royal sun agaricus, himematsutake. Served with orzo.

 

Braise included Shaoxing wine, garlic, shichimi togarashi, coriander leaf, scallions, potato starch slurry for thickening.

 

Photographed through steam.

 

 

 

Edited May 7, 2021 by liuzhou (log)

[KennethT]

14 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

I haven't posted many dinners recently. It's been a strange week. Still is.

Wok-braised chicken with morels and Agaricus subrufescens or 姬松茸 (jī sōng róng), also known as almond mushroom, mushroom of the sun, God’s mushroom, mushroom of life, royal sun agaricus, himematsutake. Served with orzo.

 

Braise included Shaoxing wine, garlic, shichimi togarashi, coriander leaf, scallions, potato starch slurry for thickening.

 

Photographed through steam.

 

 

 

Related to our discussion in the wok-cooking thread, how do you cook the orzo?  Do you just use a pot on another burner?  Also, how many burners (hobs) do normal Chinese kitchen have?  I'd think there would be only 1 since everything is usually cooked in the wok anyway...

[liamsaunt]

Spicy turkey stir fry with garlic, fish sauce, lime and ginger to use up the turkey I took out of the freezer for tacos yesterday and ended up not using, smacked cucumber salad, rice

 

[liuzhou]

Just now, KennethT said:

Related to our discussion in the wok-cooking thread, how do you cook the orzo?  Do you just use a pot on another burner?  Also, how many burners (hobs) do normal Chinese kitchen have?  I'd think there would be only 1 since everything is usually cooked in the wok anyway...

 

Most people have two burner stoves (including me). I do the orzo on the second burner in a regular pan. Rice, I do in the rice cooker.

 

[scamhi]

grilled chicken breasts last night. With labne with sizzled scallions and chili (an Alison Roman recipe), and a greek salad with feta.

My friend brought a Cornas to drink and we drank it maybe not the best pairing..

[Kim Shook]

For Cinco de Mayo, we had Sloppy Josés (😁).  With baked beans, broccoli salad, and fries:

[Duvel]

Told you ...

 

[kayb]

A couple of dinners from my time at the Redneck Riviera:

 

 

Dear Sweet Baby Jesus. Acme Oyster House has an outpost in Gulf Shores. These were perhaps the best chargrilled oysters I've ever had. Just broiled enough to crust the parm, not enough to shrink 'em up and dry 'em out. And the were Big Damn Oysters. May have been my best meal in Gulf Shores.

 

Then again, not in Gulf Shores, but on the way. The George Salad, shrimp and lump crabmeat, at Mary Mahoney's in Biloxi. There is, in fact, lettuce underneath that. And these people make the best blue cheese dressing on the face of the planet.

 

Once I got home, there was grouper, snow peas and dirty rice. Not half bad...

 

 

[Ann_T]

This has to be one of the best pages ever.  Great meals and beautiful photos and plating.  

I really, really, really want @JoNorvelleWalkertofu. Makes my mouth water it looks soooooo gooood.  Showed it to Moe

and his response was if I make it he will eat it. 

 

I wish I had seen @liamsaunt 's  blackened salmon before I started dinner.  I would have gone with blackened salmon instead of just grilled.

 

Thanks to @scamhiand @Duvel, I have a craving for Greek.  

 

Made Moe his favourite Caesar Salad tonight.  Served with a grilled filet of spring salmon. 

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

1 hour ago, Ann_T said:

This has to be one of the best pages ever.  Great meals and beautiful photos and plating.  

I really, really, really want @JoNorvelleWalkertofu. Makes my mouth water it looks soooooo gooood.  Showed it to Moe

and his response was if I make it he will eat it. 

 

Thank you Ann.  I have more Ma Po tofu recipes than I can shake a stick at.  This one from Hsiao-Ching Chou was good but not my finest.  She calls for cornstarch which is not my favorite thickener.  I used potato starch.  (The tapioca starch I took from the freezer turned out to be almond flour.)  That the sauce was over thickened was my fault entirely, not hers.  She says to add only as much thickener as necessary.

 

To my taste buds the dish was not hot enough.  For the leftovers I remedied this.  I think I over did it.  Nothing that lots of rice can't fix.