Dinner 2023

[liamsaunt]

Chicken katzu with cabbage, spicy cucumber salad, and rice

 

[mgaretz]

Pizza with salami and mushrooms.  I forgot to shoot the whole pizza so here's a shot with some slices missing and then those slices on my plate with some green beans:

 

 

 

[Duvel]

Bit busy recently, so pretty much only “fire & forget” type of dishes. Critically acclaimed in the last days were …

 

Stuffed aubergines …

 

 

Braised neck of lamb (a cut that was wholeheartedly endorsed by my Turkish butcher and it didn’t disappoint - super moist after 6h braise) …

 

 

Served with braised chickpeas and tzaziki …

 

 

[weinoo]

2 hours ago, Duvel said:

Braised neck of lamb (a cut that was wholeheartedly endorsed by my Turkish butcher and it didn’t disappoint - super moist after 6h braise) …

 

Neck of almost any animal I eat is usually a favorite cut.  

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Shoprite prepared pork eggrolls are vile.

 

[Margaret Pilgrim]

1 hour ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

Shoprite prepared pork eggrolls are vile.

 

Why are we not surprised?

[Kim Shook]

In my quest to find my childhood eggrolls, I've sworn off the grocery store ones, (if I eat an egg rolls it's going to be from my list of restaurants) but I discovered in college that pan frying improves the grocery store ones quite a lot.  

 

Dinner last night was unusual.  I was warming up some leftover sausage and Cheddar quiche when Jessica came in having had dinner at a Chinese place. She had some ribs she wanted me to try.  I’ve had plenty of Chinese restaurant ribs before – they tend to be dry and not very meaty.  These were amazing:

Meaty, sticky, sweet, and tangy all at the same time.  Tender, but not mushy.  Honestly, if I ordered ribs and these came, I’d be thrilled.  So, I ate two ribs standing at the sink and a couple of bites of quiche sitting down at the table.  A few bites of slaw made my vegetable!

Edited March 10, 2023 by Kim Shook (log)

[mgaretz]

1 hour ago, Kim Shook said:

In my quest to find my childhood eggrolls, I've sworn off the grocery store ones, (if I eat an egg rolls it's going to be from my list of restaurants) but I discovered in college that pan frying improves the grocery store ones quite a lot.  

 

Dinner last night was unusual.  I was warming up some leftover sausage and Cheddar quiche when Jessica came in having had dinner at a Chinese place. She had some ribs she wanted me to try.  I’ve had plenty of Chinese restaurant ribs before – they tend to be dry and not very meaty.  These were amazing:

Meaty, sticky, sweet, and tangy all at the same time.  Tender, but not mushy.  Honestly, if I ordered ribs and these came, I’d be thrilled.  So, I ate two ribs standing at the sink and a couple of bites of quiche sitting down at the table.  A few bites of slaw made my vegetable!

 

Have Mr. Kim make you some Blasphemy Ribs Char Siu style: https://blasphemyribs.com/2020/02/17/char-siu-ribs/

[JoNorvelleWalker]

2 hours ago, Kim Shook said:

In my quest to find my childhood eggrolls, I've sworn off the grocery store ones, (if I eat an egg rolls it's going to be from my list of restaurants) but I discovered in college that pan frying improves the grocery store ones quite a lot.  

 

Indeed, I'm sure pan frying would have improved these Shoprite eggrolls quite a lot.  Sadly I needed a convenience food and could not face the prospect of hot oil.  Although I can report that cooking one in the Anova on air fryer mode improved the palatability.  Still, these eggrolls are unlikely to be a repeat purchase.

 

[Honkman]

(Root) Vegetable Bowl - sweet potato, fennel, red beets, carrots, shallots and sage roasted in the oven. Swiss chard leaves and stems briefly blanched. Vinaigrette made by blending evoo, tarragon, garlic, lemon juice, honey and dijon mustard. Served over hulled barley and with feta and roasted almonds

[liamsaunt]

Black bean, sweet potato, and poblano pepper tacos with yellow rice.

 

[weinoo]

A classic:

 

 

Which is a shitload of work, cleanup, etc. But worth it.  

 

Boeuf Bourguignon. With lardons, pearl onions, mushrooms.  Boiled and sautéed potatoes. Side salad.

[KennethT]

1 hour ago, weinoo said:

A classic:

 

 

Which is a shitload of work, cleanup, etc. But worth it.  

 

Boeuf Bourguignon. With lardons, pearl onions, mushrooms.  Boiled and sautéed potatoes. Side salad.

I always thought this to be a one pot meal type thing - how much cleanup is there?

[KennethT]

One of my wife's favorites - Sichuan style twice cooked mahi mahi

[Anna N]

1 hour ago, KennethT said:

I always thought this to be a one pot meal type thing - how much cleanup is there?

Given that one usually cooks the pearl onions and mushrooms separately, I suppose it can seem a bit fiddling and creates more dishes. But I always considered it well worth any time it took. 

[lindag]

3 hours ago, weinoo said:

A classic:

 

 

Which is a shitload of work, cleanup, etc. But worth it.  

 

Boeuf Bourguignon. With lardons, pearl onions, mushrooms.  Boiled and sautéed potatoes. Side salad.

I once made this with Ina Garten's recipe; I believe it was the best meal I have ever made.  Labor intensive, thogh.

[TicTac]

37 minutes ago, Anna N said:

Given that one usually cooks the pearl onions and mushrooms separately, I suppose it can seem a bit fiddling and creates more dishes. But I always considered it well worth any time it took. 

Really?  I love them braising in the demi/wine reduction and soaking up all those flavours!

 

I suppose the rendering of the bacon, searing of beef and then assembling is a bit of a process, but like Ken said, it is typically a two pot meal (least in this house - potatoes go separately, but sometimes I want some counter texture to the soft beef so they become roasted and it reverts back to 1 pot!).

[weinoo]

1 hour ago, KennethT said:

I always thought this to be a one pot meal type thing - how much cleanup is there?

 

18 minutes ago, Anna N said:

Given that one usually cooks the pearl onions and mushrooms separately, I suppose it can seem a bit fiddling and creates more dishes. But I always considered it well worth any time it took. 

 

Yes, the onions and mushrooms were cooked separately  There was also the blanching of the lardons separately.  The peeling and boiling of the potatoes separately and then sautéing of the potatoes - separately.  Them there's the draining of the cooking liquid so the bouquet garni can be discarded, the cooking liquid defatted, and then the cooking liquid got blitzed. It also got thickened with a beurre manié.

 

4 different pots and pans. Various bowls to remove the cooked meat and the strained liquid into. The strainers. The stick blender.  The peeler. The knives. The cutting board.

 

It all looks simple on the plate though!  I gotta get back to making Thai, Malaysian, Indonesian and Singaporean food - those are simple!

 

[weinoo]

1 minute ago, weinoo said:

Yes, the onions and mushrooms were cooked separately

 

These were first sautéed in butter and olive oil, and braised in stock till the stock was well reduced - then added to the boeuf.

[Anna N]

43 minutes ago, TicTac said:

Really?  I love them braising in the demi/wine reduction and soaking up all those flavours!

To each their own, of course, but that is just a beef stew to me. 

[C. sapidus]

Tai bai chicken, stir-fried red chard with garlic, and jasmine rice. Chicken and chard both from Fuchsia Dunlop’s ‘Land of Plenty’.

 

Tai bai chicken has been a longtime favorite. Sauce is dried red chiles, pickled chiles, Sichuan peppercorns, dark soy sauce, chicken stock, Shaoxing wine, etc. slowly cooked down to a glaze. End result is tender chicken in a complex spicy sauce. Good stuff.

 

In progress and done:

[Norm Matthews]

I got a stewing hen to make some broth for chicken & dumplings. After the broth was made, I used the white meat to make chicken salad. I used the stewing chicken thighs along with regular chicken thighs with the dumplings.  It was all good but I don't know how it happened that the inside of the dumplings were dark, like they were made with rye flour or something.

[KennethT]

34 minutes ago, C. sapidus said:

Tai bai chicken, stir-fried red chard with garlic, and jasmine rice. Chicken and chard both from Fuchsia Dunlop’s ‘Land of Plenty’.

 

Tai bai chicken has been a longtime favorite. Sauce is dried red chiles, pickled chiles, Sichuan peppercorns, dark soy sauce, chicken stock, Shaoxing wine, etc. slowly cooked down to a glaze. End result is tender chicken in a complex spicy sauce. Good stuff.

 

 

In progress and done:

I definitely need to look into this!

[Ann_T]

Tonight's dinner was so good and very simple.

 

I had some ground pork that I had been thinking of making a pasta sauce with when I got home from work.

Instead I made an Asian style soup with pork meatballs seasoned with chopped green onion, ginger, garlic, sesame oil and a little soy sauce.

Shaped into little meatballs and simmered in a pot of chicken broth.

Broth was seasoned with a few slices of ginger and a couple of cracked garlic cloves.

When the meatballs were cooked I cut up some zucchini and added to the pot.

 

Simmered just until tender. Added some rice noodles , cooked for a few more minutes and served garnished with chopped cilantro and green onion.

[liuzhou]

Pineapple Prawn Fried Rice