Dinner 2022

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Considering I'd never in my life before attempted fried rice, dinner was very good.  I thank Kenji.

 

[Anna N]

4 hours ago, Dejah said:

I still shudder when I remember my grandfather's favourite dish: silk worms steamed in a savoury egg custard...😜

Ewwwww. 

[liuzhou]

5 hours ago, Dejah said:

I still shudder when I remember my grandfather's favourite dish: silk worms steamed in a savoury egg custard...😜

 

Even I would shudder at egg custard!

[weinoo]

 

Steam Girl roasted chicken thigh.  Cabbage wedges roasted alongside the thighs. And one of the best potato salads made in quite a while.

 

To drink: a nice Cru Beaujolais from one of my favorite producers, Georges Descombes.

[gfweb]

36 minutes ago, weinoo said:

 

Steam Girl roasted chicken thigh.  Cabbage wedges roasted alongside the thighs. And one of the best potato salads made in quite a while.

 

To drink: a nice Cru Beaujolais from one of my favorite producers, Georges Descombes.

roasted cabbage is a delight

[Anna N]

2 hours ago, weinoo said:

Steam Girl roasted chicken thigh.  Cabbage wedges roasted alongside the thighs.

I would love to know time, temperature and preparation if you wouldn’t mind. 

[Dejah]

Poor judgement on my part - tried a prime rib roast in the Ninja Foodie air fryer. Should NOT have been lazy and pulled out the food saver and do sous vide then finish off on BBQ (still no new oven!)

 

Roast looked good, but cooking was uneven, and meat was not tender! Had a small meal, then tucked the rest into the fridge.

 

                                                                                     

 

Quick Butter Chicken with a jar of KFI sauce.  Eaten with brown basmati rice and cardamom carrots

 

                                                                                     

 

Decided I'd better use up the leftover prime rib. Cut the meat up and made stew in the pressure cooker. Was good but what a waste of a good piece of beef! Good things it was on sale with a $10.00 off sticker!

 

                                           

 

                                                                                           

   

 

 

[Anna N]

1 hour ago, Dejah said:

Poor judgement on my part - tried a prime rib roast in the Ninja Foodie air fryer.

Yeah! Much as I like to believe the air fryer can do anything, I have found otherwise. And it is not always obvious which ones are going to fail. Such a shame about the roast. 

[weinoo]

3 hours ago, Anna N said:

I would love to know time, temperature and preparation if you wouldn’t mind. 

Sure.  

A little duck fat rub and salt and pepper. Sprinkled with herbs de Provence, as I often do with chicken.

Skin side down convection bake 400℉ - 20 minutes.

Skin side up convection bake 400℉ - 22 or so minutes - when I turned the thighs over, I removed some of the liquid that had pooled and basted with that. There was more liquid than normal because of the cabbage I'm sure.

[Annie_H]

Hot smoked salmon and wild gulf shrimp spring rolls and sushi. Finally have basil, mint, and cilantro in the house at the same time. (Thai basil is only two inches tall in the garden). Imposter wasabi---mustard powder and horseradish but does the trick for a quickie. Micro green Rambo radish and pea shoots. I've been getting the best tiny but dense, creamy, avocados. Tiny pits. So heavy for their size.

Made a few hand rolls for todays lunches. 

I have a new last week delivery of Alaskan salmon, sushi grade. But found some of last Falls delivery I smoked that I'm using up first. 

I order twice a year that suits us. !0 pounds is about 25-30 cryo-vac'd portions. 

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

16 minutes ago, weinoo said:

Sure.  

A little duck fat rub and salt and pepper. Sprinkled with herbs de Provence, as I often do with chicken.

Skin side down convection bake 400℉ - 20 minutes.

Skin side up convection bake 400℉ - 22 or so minutes - when I turned the thighs over, I removed some of the liquid that had pooled and basted with that. There was more liquid than normal because of the cabbage I'm sure.

 

No steam?

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

2 hours ago, Dejah said:

Poor judgement on my part - tried a prime rib roast in the Ninja Foodie air fryer. Should NOT have been lazy and pulled out the food saver and do sous vide then finish off on BBQ (still no new oven!)

 

Roast looked good, but cooking was uneven, and meat was not tender! Had a small meal, then tucked the rest into the fridge.

 

                                                                                     

 

 

I would gladly eat the picture!  I envy your photography.  (And your cooking too, of course.)

 

[Annie_H]

Pups are eating good. They get kibble, (cereal), for breakfast and a homemade porridge for dinner I make once a week. Saving veg kale stems, celery, carrots and their tops, --any crisper ends saved. Apples, pears. (no allium family). Cuisinart minced. Rotation of ofals, liver, minced beef, chicken.

Cleaning out the pretty empty freezer I found a half dozen salmon fillets in the bottom freezer drawer under food savered herbs and grape leaves and fresh frozen ginger/tumeric. Family rule is veg only in that drawer but shit happens. Might be from early 2020 so pups are happy. 

3 recent batches...

[Borgstrom]

On 6/1/2022 at 4:12 AM, weinoo said:

 

I do like onigiri on the grill; can you mention a little more about that grill?

It’s a ceramic “konro” grill I bought on eBay from a seller in Japan.  It’s very traditional there (I lived in Japan for 5 years a long long time ago) for yakitori and other types of kushiyaki.  A similar model is available here.

 

This unit is made from diatomaceous earth, which relatively light and insulates very well.  Outside of grill is warm to the touch while the binchotan charcoal inside is burning at 1000F+.
 

This type of grill is meant to be used with traditional Japanese binchotan charcoal, which these days is very expensive (a box of it can cost as much as the grill) and hard to come by, but it burns long (4 hours +/-) and doesn’t emit much smoke.  I’m using a “fake” binchotan from Thailand (I think) made from compressed sawdust.  It seems to work very well, burning much hotter and much longer than typical lump charcoal I typically use in the US.

 

I really like the grill because it is compact and efficient. So much so that I plan to sell my large Big Green Egg, which is really best for long/slow cooks of big chunks of meat that I’m not as in to these days.  The 2-foot konro will do yakitori obviously, but it would also fit a couple burgers or a steak if I’m in the mood.

[KennethT]

2 minutes ago, Borgstrom said:

It’s a ceramic “konro” grill I bought on eBay from a seller in Japan.  It’s very traditional there (I lived in Japan for 5 years a long long time ago) for yakitori and other types of kushiyaki.  A similar model is available here.

 

This unit is made from diatomaceous earth, which relatively light and insulates very well.  Outside of grill is warm to the touch while the binchotan charcoal inside is burning at 1000F+.
 

This type of grill is meant to be used with traditional Japanese binchotan charcoal, which these days is very expensive (a box of it can cost as much as the grill) and hard to come by, but it burns long (4 hours +/-) and doesn’t emit much smoke.  I’m using a “fake” binchotan from Thailand (I think) made from compressed sawdust.  It seems to work very well, burning much hotter and much longer than typical lump charcoal I typically use in the US.

 

I really like the grill because it is compact and efficient. So much so that I plan to sell my large Big Green Egg, which is really best for long/slow cooks of big chunks of meat that I’m not as in to these days.  The 2-foot konro will do yakitori obviously, but it would also fit a couple burgers or a steak if I’m in the mood.

When cooking a small quantity, I assume there would be a lot of binchotan remaining.  Can you quench it and let it dry and then use it again later?

[Borgstrom]

On 6/1/2022 at 5:52 AM, Paul Bacino said:

@Borgstrom-  Just curious how u start your Coal?

Binchotan has a reputation of being hard to start.

In Japan they typically start it on a portable butane burner or commercial kitchen gas hob in a special pot with perforated bottom.

 

I started in a chimney, but then stuck a MAPP gas torch up the bottom to get it going - you can see both on the ground in one of the shots.

[Borgstrom]

3 minutes ago, KennethT said:

When cooking a small quantity, I assume there would be a lot of binchotan remaining.  Can you quench it and let it dry and then use it again later?

Absolutely.  For my several-hour Memorial Day dinner I think I had about half of it remaining.

 

I took all the charcoal out and placed back in the chimney, then quenched with water.  You definitely don’t want to quench with water while still in the ceramic grill as the grill would crack.

 

I’ve just ordered a new chimney that has a removable top and bottom that can be used to extinguish the charcoal instead of using water, avoiding the resulting steam/mess.

[weinoo]

52 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

No steam?

 

I've taken to less steam usage (maybe because I don't think the unit works perfectly any more - too much liquid); I tend to use it these days for reheating or for vegetables only.

[Captain]

On 6/2/2022 at 2:04 AM, Kim Shook said:

was the shank cooked on an outside grill at a high temperature or was it cooked low and slow?

180c outside in the Kamodo.  This time I used lump charcoal and no extra wood for more smoke.

[liuzhou]

Crayfish with lemon and plum blossom wine.  Osmanthus honey roasted pork ribs.

 

 

 

[kayb]

And herein lies a quandary. In this part of the world, it’s crawfish. Elsewhere, crayfish. Which is correct, or is it merely a dialectical difference?

[liuzhou]

26 minutes ago, kayb said:

And herein lies a quandary. In this part of the world, it’s crawfish. Elsewhere, crayfish. Which is correct, or is it merely a dialectical difference?

 

Yes it's just dialectical. It's been through many spellings and pronunciations throughout the centuries.

[shain]

A pre-cooked hot pot.

Made a simple thick soup base, with chili-bean paste, a few vegetables, some rice wine and soy. A spice and chili oil (incl. peppercorns, cassia, anise, fennel, coriander, ginger, etc).

Served with a simple sesame based dipping sauce and lao-gan-ma.

 

Edited June 3, 2022 by shain (log)

[Annie_H]

A new-to-me pasta. Trofle. Just delivered so I was anxious to try. Sauce was already planned. Vegetable vodka Mediterranean. Spiced chick peas in the oven with merguez. 

Long cook time I watched like a hawk. 10-13 minutes the package says. Started checking at 9min. Ladled out at 13min since planning to toss with the sauce before serving. Nice. Will be my go-to for summer pesto and mixed greens this summer. Garden peas, etc. I weighted out 1/3'rd the package and made dinner and two lunches so 4 servings. 16 servings per package. (17.6 oz) Used an all-clad saucepan. Lots of evaporation with such a long cook but made a really nice thick starchy 'broth' to add to the sauce. Wrong sauce pairing but I knew that. Nice to know it holds up well cold next day lunch. 

[Kim Shook]

@Duvel – how do you make the sauce for your fried noodles?  I have tried to do fried noodles before but had trouble with the sauce ending up in a pool on the bottom of the dish and the noodles being high and dry.  Your sauce seems to cling nicely to the noodles. 

 

Dinner night before last was just plain hot dogs, fixed up Kraft, and some delicious IP collards:

 

 

 

Last night was the lazy woman’s version of the ham and egg salad sandwich I fell in love with in England – mayo, mustard, and ham:

 

 

Add sliced eggs:

 

 

The seediest bread I’ve ever had:

 

It’s from Aldi and it’s fantastic.  But this pisses me off all out of proportion:

😠😁