Dinner 2023

[dcarch]

It's that time of the year, hosta shoots poking thru garden soil, even before asparagus appears. Tender, crispy, delicious delicate flavor like a happy marriage between asparagus and endive.

Made hosta with ravioli.

 

dcarch

 

 

Edited April 21, 2023 by dcarch (log)

[KennethT]

55 minutes ago, heidih said:

So you are able to source belacan locally?

My local stores haven't carried it for a while. I got it on Amazon. More expensive than it should be but better than nothing.

[Margaret Pilgrim]

22 minutes ago, dcarch said:

It's that time of the year, hosta shoots poking thru garden soil, even before asparagus appears. Tender, crispy, delicious delicate flavor like a happy marriage between asparagus and endive.

Made hosta with ravioli.

 

dcarch

 

 

Borage, yes, but never thought of including them on our plates.    Lovely!   

[C. sapidus]

1 hour ago, KennethT said:

Babi pongteh?

Seh bak, according to ‘Cradle of Flavor’

[Dante]

Chili over baked potatoes with sour cream

[liamsaunt]

I am overloaded with sweet potatoes and arugula (and radishes, but that's another story) from my CSA right now, so last night I made crispy sweet potato gnocchi and served them on an arugula cream sauce with shaved parmesan and more arugula.  I still have lots of sweet potatoes and arugula to cook, but at least this made a dent.

 

[gulfporter]

When the restaurant on our street has Enmoladas de Pato (duck enchiladas covered in molé negro), I run for it!  At 120p (incl. tax) or $6.50 USD it's a steal.  

 

 

[mgaretz]

Tri-tip with a baked potato.

 

 

[liamsaunt]

Fork and knife scallop boats with bacon and chives.

 

[scamhi]

made Alison Roman's brown butter salmon

Leftovers made it into a salmon rice salad 

with Chablis

[Duvel]

There is no way one can make this look good, but it sure is tasty:

 

Pork neck, braised with onions, cream and peaches, served with Schupfnudeln, broccoli and hazelnuts.

 

[Duvel]

And a bit of dolled up leftovers:

 

Cold SV tri-tip, sliced thinly and dressed with anchovynaise, capers, parmesan shavings and parsley. 
 

 

According to my wife this dish is perfectly camouflaging on our tablecloth …

[Kim Shook]

A couple of nights ago was take-out.  Caesar salad:

 

Completely crappy Cheesy Garlic Bread:

Barely warmed, cheese not fully melted and no garlic flavor at all. Pizza was decent, though:

 

Last night was date night at a new (to us) place called 21 Spoons.  It was named best locally owned restaurant in VA by Southern Living magazine this year.   We really enjoyed everything and will definitely be back.  We started with cocktails:

Cirrus vodka & tonic and a Three Crosses bourbon – both companies are local. This place really focuses on local goods, as much as possible.  And I’m madly in love with my glass and the swizzle stick:

 

I found the swizzle sticks on Amazon and put them on my wishlist, but no luck so far with the glasses. 

 

We had the bread service:

Farmer’s loaf, zucchini, and honey beer. The beer flavor could have been more pronounced and the zucchini bread was the best either of us has ever tasted. 

 

I had the Bacon wrapped duck breast, sautéed Swiss chard, roasted and smashed red potatoes, with a pear gastrique:

The gastrique was absolutely perfect and elevated excellent potatoes to extraordinary.  The chard was the best preparation I’ve ever tasted.  I rarely order duck breast because of how weird some chefs are about cooking past medium-rare, which I detest.  It literally becomes like a wad of wet paper towel in my mouth that, no matter how hard I try, I cannot get down.  But this chef was happy to do medium.  And it was perfect:

 

I was heating it up for lunch today (4/22) and nibbled on a cold piece and it was STILL tender and moist.  Amazing.  Eating the leftovers, I’m thinking about how good duck and roast potato hash would be. 

 

Mr. Kim had the house made pappardelle noodles, pan seared shrimp, local mushrooms, asparagus, basil, pea-shoot pesto, and shaved Parmesan:

It sounded a bit overreaching to me.  Like there was too much going on.  I was wrong.  This was perfectly balanced and the thinness of the mushrooms and asparagus made them almost a part of the pesto – more flavoring than substance.  And the mushrooms were very mild, so it didn’t taste funky to me.  But there were enough larger pieces of both that it pleased Mr. Kim.  My only issue is the flower.  I mostly find flowers decorating food to be dumb.

 

Dessert was roasted strawberry panna cotta, but I knew I couldn’t eat it, so I ordered it to take home:

 

We had one bite there:

It was sublime.  I make a roasted strawberry cheesecake and it had a similar flavor. 

[C. sapidus]

 

Potato rendang: Someone (KennethT?) posted about rendang and I have been hankering ever since. Paste of lemongrass, shallots, garlic, Holland and bird chilies, fresh turmeric, ginger, and galangal, all whizzed up in the new Preethi.* Simmered with coconut milk, Thai basil, baby Yukon gold potatoes, and lots of time.

 

 

Stir-fried spinach with onion, garlic, ginger, and chilies. Good stuff.

 

 

* My old Preethi blender performed admirably for at least 15 years, but recently bit the dust. Its replacement worked well tonight.

Edited April 22, 2023 by C. sapidus (log)

[Dejah]

Been a slacker in posting, but definitely not in eating 😉

 

Easter was a scramble. Didn't have my daughter to lend her hands, so had to plan accordingly. Not a pretty sight but the han was good. Had homemade perogies from a friend, scalloped taters, sprouts, carrots. Of course I made the mustard sauce per @Shelby!
Made quick pickled asparagus a couple of days before as my 8 year old granddaughter loves them.

               

             

 

From the freezer, a turkey breast on sale: stuffed and roasted. Love mash potatoes and gravy! The apple cranberry orange pecan chutney I made for the ham is perfect for this.
                                                                                 

 

Had ground beef to use up: with onions and Cavendish fries. It was extra lean ground beef, so I added a tbsp of peanut butter to the mix. For dessert, Egg Custard Pie!

 

                         

 

Still had ground beef left, so made Keema Curry with Ground Beef. Reminded us of the Keema Naan we had so enjoyed in England. I should have made naan from scratch and stuffed them before frying.    

                                                                                         

 

Fish 'n' Chips with baby pickerel:                                 

 

Pan seared the tail piece of a whole tenderloin - more perogies!

                                                                                      

 

                                                                                         

Off to see the band, the Stampeders - their 50th Anniversary!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 23, 2023 by Dejah
Missed a photo (log)

[KennethT]

1 hour ago, C. sapidus said:

 

Potato rendang: Someone (KennethT?) posted about rendang and I have been hankering ever since. Paste of lemongrass, shallots, garlic, Holland and bird chilies, fresh turmeric, ginger, and galangal, all whizzed up in the new Preethi.* Simmered with coconut milk, Thai basil, baby Yukon gold potatoes, and lots of time.

 

 

Great looking rendang... nice and dry!  I've been itching to make rendang too... I have some goat meat in the freezer with rendang written all over it but I need a lot of time and I'm still on the hunt for some either fresh or frozen turmeric leaves, which would be a common ingredient in a traditional North Sumatran rendang.  According to William Wongso, the premier Indonesian food authority, rendang originated there.  He has spent years trying to bring Indonesian food outside of Indonesia and was very proud that in 2011, rendang was named the World's Most Delicious Food in a CNN article.

[KennethT]

Sichuan twice cooked mahi mahi.

 

And cucumber salad.

[Honkman]

Beef burger with Fontina cheese and sage filling, topped with prosciutto and baby spinach. Buns had some lemon zest mayonnaise.

[liuzhou]

5 hours ago, KennethT said:

I have some goat meat in the freezer

 

Lucky you!

While I can very easily buy a live goat online, goat meat is seldom eaten in south China and even the goat meat common in northern China doesn't get here for some reason.

Another problem is that, as in many languages, in everyday Chinese 'goat' and 'sheep' are the same word (羊肉 - yáng ròu) , so even if you find either, you never really know what you are buying.


 

Edited April 23, 2023 by liuzhou (log)

[Ann_T]

14 hours ago, C. sapidus said:

 

* My old Preethi blender performed admirably for at least 15 years, but recently bit the dust. Its replacement worked well tonight.

Love the idea of those potatoes, but it is the blender that really interests me, with all those attachments.

 

So many wonder meals.

17 hours ago, Kim Shook said:

 

I had the Bacon wrapped duck breast, sautéed Swiss chard, roasted and smashed red potatoes, with a pear gastrique:

@Kim Shook, I would have ordered this too. Except I do like mine more rare.  

20 hours ago, liamsaunt said:

Fork and knife scallop boats with bacon and chives.

@liamsaunt, I don't care for scallops, but Moe loves them.  Next time I cook scallops for Moe, I'm going to copy your dish for him.  Great photo.

 

13 hours ago, Dejah said:

Makes me want a roast chicken/turkey dinner just for the mashed potatoes and gravy.

 Pulled some rhubarb yesterday morning and made the first rhubarb pie of the season. 

Dinner was a simple pasta with grilled chicken breast

and rhubarb pie for dessert. 

[gulfporter]

Cold plate of Black Forest ham, cambozola cheese, deviled eggs (they look a bit green as I made with chimichurri), sliced apples, olives.  Just enough for a hot summer-y evening. 

 

 

[C. sapidus]

40 minutes ago, Ann_T said:

Love the idea of those potatoes, but it is the blender that really interests me, with all those attachments.

 

Preethi does a great job of blending tough ingredients like reconstituted dried chilies for Mexican sauces, or lemongrass, ginger, galangal, etc. for Southeast Asian spice pastes. I mostly use the different-sized blender jars, which are handy for grinding up smaller or larger quantities.

 

Before I got a Preethi (with its 550W motor) I used to kill regular blenders in a year or so.

 

Love me some rhubarb pie, and yours looks fantastic!

[liamsaunt]

Flatbread with mushroom pesto and roasted mushrooms, topped with arugula

 

[heidih]

21 minutes ago, liamsaunt said:

Flatbread with mushroom pesto and roasted mushrooms, topped with arugula

 

So the mushrooms for pesto are completely blenderized? I like the idea.

[mgaretz]

Not sure what to call this, but the wife wanted veggies in a red sauce with leftover tri-tip.  Sauce was tomato sauce and diced tomatoes, veggies were broccoli, snap peas and brussels sprouts, served over egg noodles.