Lunch 2023

[C. sapidus]

 

Palak paneer, with spinach, dried fenugreek, green chiles, ginger, garlic, and the last of the homemade paneer. Topped with slivered and fried ginger. Yum

 

Palak paneer is the dish that first piqued my interest in Indian food. According to the internet saag paneer is more of a dinner course, and palak paneer is more of an appetizer. I think I prefer the simpler, easier to make palak paneer.

[Dejah]

Brunch: Bacon, Mushroom, Onion, omelet with cheese and salsa.
 

                                                                                    

[liuzhou]

A few days ago, I mentioned I had a rice noodle dish with pork meat and offal from the hospital canteen for lunch but had no picture. Today, I had it again.

 

 

As supplied, it was a bit bland but I had cunningly secreted a leftover little pot of hot sauce from an outside delivery dinner a couple of evenings ago. That woke my rice noodles up nicely.

 

[Kim Shook]

McRibs are back – a guilty pleasure for Mr. Kim and me.  I got one for lunch Wednesday:

I posted it on FB and people are SO disappointed in me.  🤣🤣🤣

[C. sapidus]

Stopped by a brewery and was pleasantly surprised to see a seafood truck

 

[KennethT]

 

Vietnamese lemongrass chicken 

[BonVivant]

Winter has finally arrived here this week. The temperatures plummet sharply. Time for soup.

Seedy rye bread to eat with squash soup. (Hard Mettwurst, Tyrolean Speck and Swiss Emmental)

Trout roe

"Blue ballet" according to the label in the shop but I couldn't find a photo on interweb like mine. They were all Blue Hubbard form. Anyway, tastes sweet and fresh is yellow but it's "strand-y". OK to eat but would rather not buy again. I only like dense, potato-like kind, ie kabocha etc.

Used leftover beef braising liquids with fresh turmeric roots (pounded with some coarse salt) to flavour the soup. The squash was already previously cooked in the oven so the soup didn't take long to put together.

If dart throwing can be a competitive "sport" so can chewing German rye bread! The loaf is small but heavy. Needs to eat slower than normal, makes you think about stuff while eating cuz it's no normal rye bread. Substantial bread, makes one feel full for a very long time. Thanks, farmers and bakers!

 

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Another lunch:

Asian supermarket in the big city near me has "sashimi grade" salmon which I buy once in a while.

(There's soy sauce underneath.)

 

Quinoa and nori flakes

 

Also, soft tofu and a nice beer.

 

Finally ate the black seed squash. It's worthless but absorbs sauces well. Still so not going to get it again.

 

And lastly, my long time garden boss robin met his demise this summer. It appeared he had an illness, could not stand on his own legs and things went downhill fast for him from there. This new robin came to the garden from time to time but was chased off by the garden boss. He started coming again early this autumn and decided to stay. He's still timid but knows his way round the garden now, and where he stands with other resident birds. He's nobody's boss at the moment but we shall see. It's the first time I made photos of him (today).

I miss the old robin so much. Here's the new robin. Welcome to the garden, little darling!

[KennethT]

 

Sichuan fish....

[Raamo]

I really like hash, and we have duck fat in the freezer... so potatoes + duck fat to bath in.... toss in sausage, onions and an egg on top.

 

Yummy!

 

[blue_dolphin]

Two versions of Ruby Noodles from Nigella.  The pasta is boiled in salted water for a few min, then transferred to a pan of beet juice to finish cooking while the beet juice reduces to a sauce. 

I made this version last week.  The beet juice is flavored with garlic and it's served warm with feta cheese and fresh dill. The beet juice adds a good bit of sweetness but the dill and feta are a good contrast.

 

The other version is a cold noodle dish, with Asian flavors.  Kind of a pink sesame noodle. How Nigella!

I added raw carrot and sugar snap peas and a few shrimp.  I wasn't sure how everything was going to look in pink so I took this photo before tossing everything together: 

 

And after - the shrimp are now VERY pink!

 

[Kim Shook]

@BonVivant – I got the book:

Thank you so much for the recommendation!  I’ve flipped through it and it looks wonderful.  I am really looking forward to reading it after the holidays! 

 

@C. sapidus – I assume that was a crabcake sandwich?  I’ve got some crabmeat in the freezer and I’m hoping to make crabcakes with it soon, if I ever cook anything but Xmas stuff!

 

Jessica surprised me by bringing Popeye’s home for lunch yesterday:

Edited December 6, 2023 by Kim Shook (log)

[C. sapidus]

35 minutes ago, Kim Shook said:

@C. sapidus – I assume that was a crabcake sandwich?  I’ve got some crabmeat in the freezer and I’m hoping to make crabcakes with it soon, if I ever cook anything but Xmas stuff!

 

 

Yes, crab cake. Pretty good crab cake, too.
 

But of course homemade crab cakes can contain big hunks of crab meat that would be financially nonviable for a food truck. 

[Steve Irby]

Burnt ends and slaw for lunch.    The pickled onions are adapted from a Judy Rogers recipe and the ancho-fig sauce from Aaron Franklin.  The sweet pickle used in the slaw came from the pantry and were based on my mom's recipe.

 

[BonVivant]

Simple dumplings with pumpkin filling.

Very pungent aged Lanzarotean goat's cheese.

Used the squash on left in the dumplings. Not sure about both their names at all, though.

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#2
Bought a pack of duck yolks to test. Went back the following week to get 2 more. I've only used them to make a thick sauce for various (non-recipe) dishes as baking is not really my thing.

Octopus tentacles with tofu puffs in duck yolk sauce. Eaten with udon noodles.

The next one doesn't contain any duck yolk sauce. Finely chopped tempeh with lemongrass and chillies.

-------------------
#3
Have been eating Amami grain miso I brought back from the island. Cook any vegetable and/or meat till done, turn off heat and fold in the miso, together with some bonito flakes. Glad I brought 3 packages with me from Amami!

Pea shoots and a mix of various types of seaweed.

Soft tofu and roe

Omelette drenched in dashi

Have been eating meals like this ever since I got home from Japan. Trying to obtain a variety of nutrients in small portions.

Distressing news round here in the last few weeks.
She was always kind and helpful.
Bow.

 

@Kim Shook

You got the book! Looks in good condition. The shipping cost to another continent is ridiculous (it's a large and very heavy book). The books in this series were originally in German and published by a (now defunct) German company. You can tell they put a lot of resources into it, including the very good translation work. Exhaustive research, nice professional photography and beautifully put together. There's a bunch of recipes so have a go at making them if you can obtain ingredients. Have fun reading! You will learn something new/interesting from the food and their (historical) back stories in this book. I find that they have enriched my food knowledge much more (and also inspired my travels).

 

PS: one of the New Year dishes is carp (there are several ways to cook them). Get there soon!

 

[KennethT]

 

Bison mapo tofu with Korean leeks (like a giant scallion) and cucumber salad.

[liuzhou]

Bánh mì from local Vietnamese restaurant.

 

 

 

[Kim Shook]

@BonVivant – yes!  I got it and it looks fantastic.  I got an incredible deal on it at abebooks.com – someone in the US had it and it was $5.48 with free shipping.  I love that site – I don’t think I’ve bought a new book in YEARS!  And thank you for posting the photo with the robin and the message about Heidi.  She would have loved that.

 

For lunch the other day, I let my inner child choose the meal – fish finger sandwich and spaghetti hoops:

 

This was a common lunch that my English step-sisters would give me when I’d go over to their mom’s house visit them.  The hoops were from Lidl and tasted NOT like SpaghettiOs, but like canned tomato soup with macaroni in it (a common way to embellish tomato soup when I was a kid).   I think this lunch might belong on the guilty pleasures topic!

 

Today:

Trader Joe’s Slightly Smoked salmon, crackers, and an apple.  Colby Jack was very interested:

[rotuts]

@Kim Shook 

 

MC's eyes pop out when I open a can of that lightly smoked salmon.

Edited December 11, 2023 by rotuts (log)

[Steve Irby]

Lunch was leftover chicken karahi combined with shredded cabbage, green peas and a rich turkey broth.  I finished the soup with green onions, jalpeno and lemon slices served over medium grain rice.  

 

[liuzhou]

About a week or so ago, I posted a meal in the Dinner topic which consisted of two half portions of menu items allowing me to sample different dishes. Today I did the same for lunch from the same restaurant.

 

美味虾仁鲜虾  半分 (měi wèi xiā rén xiān xiā   bàn fēn), delicious shrimp  half portion.

 

 

美味花甲  半分 (měi wèi huā jiǎ   bàn fēn), delicious flower clams half portion.

 

 

Came with rice.

 

Flower clams are a type of small salt water clam, popular here.

 

花甲 (huā jiǎ), flower clams

 

 

Edited December 14, 2023 by liuzhou (log)

[blue_dolphin]

I got squid in my fish share this week so I combined that with my Rancho Gordo bean club shipment and made this recipe for Smoky Squid and Beans from Nigella's Cook, Eat, Repeat.  Recipe available online at this link. 

I also made her Scandi Cucumber Salad to go along with. 

 

The book recipe calls for jarred, Spanish judión beans so Royal Coronas might have been the closest sub but I went with Christmas Limas so everything wouldn't be quite the same color. 

This is a very quick and easy recipe.  In the header notes, Nigella gives options for using different beans, different seafood or leaving it out for a vegan version so I'll be playing around with it in the future. 

[liuzhou]

肉宴铁板炒饭 (ròu yàn tiě bǎn chǎo fàn), Meat feast, iron plate fried rice.

 

Roast chicken, ham, scallops, shrimp, egg, garlic chives.

 

 

 

[Kerala]

Can you tell what it is yet? 😃

[Duvel]

1 hour ago, Kerala said:

Can you tell what it is yet? 😃

Well, if there would be cream …

[Tropicalsenior]

5 minutes ago, Duvel said:

Well, if there would be cream …

I would say spaghetti carbonara.