Dinner 2023

[lindag]

A cold front will cool  our temperatures for the next few days.

A perfect opportunity to make this much anticipated recipe form 

Cooks Country.

[weinoo]

 

Fish soup.  Alaskan cod, fish stock, tomatoes, tomato paste, potatoes, onions, leeks, shallots, garlic, carrots, celery, saffron, herbs, scallions.

[Duvel]

The „last telcon until 20.30h“ dinner (basically the time when little one has to go to bed):

 

Demae Curry Ramen, plunged into a serving bowl filled with baby spinach and augmented with 5 min egg, shrimps, roasted onions and nori. Eaten at 20.37h 🤗

 

[Annie_H]

Nice to have shrimp in the home again. Wild caught gulf, 26-30's. For the holidays I also stocked 36-40's for xMas day mini shrimp rolls. Not nearly as good as the larger. Cheaper by 5$ or more a pound. Might just be the variety and the waters. Smaller 'salad' shrimp are consistently not very shrimpy.

I tend to keep shrimp simple. Shallot, leek, celery, butter, white wine. Skillet cooked separately so I can watch it like a hawk. A couple were a bit underdone. I like that sweet spot where it just turns opaque. 

Then tossed in a seaweed/white miso/ginger/fresh lemon salad. Over a chili crisped pasta. --two separate dishes but I tend to just pile it on. Not tossed together. 

 

 

 

 

[Dejah]

Hi @Kim Shook: Apologies for late to reply. It's actually spring here and I've been busy playing in the dirt!

 

Not sure what is traditional chow mein, but our Soo's #12A Cantonese Chow Mein has always been a bed of noodles topped with mixed veg and proteins with a light "gravy" of chicken stock and slurry.
We used the packages of dry egg noodles, toss into boiling water until softened, cold rinse, drain and keep in the fridge. With each order, we'd toss them into a hot wok with hot oil. We'd let them get a little bit of a crisp on the outside, then plate. Then we'd cook the topping. The sauce can soften the centre of the bed of noodles, but they outer part stays dry, unless you want it softened.
I've also made it so it's like a thick pancake. The outside is crispy but the inside is soft.
My grands like just the "stir-fried" noodles, with crispy bits but still soft. Lots of sesame oil!
Lo Mein is noodles with all ingredients tossed together and a bit of sauce, but not gooey or runny. We don't like those. LOL!
I usually use flat noodles for soup, or flat rice sticks for pad thai.

I can get "steamed noodles" in the supermarket. They are loose rather than in cakes. Still have to dunk them into boiling water before the wok.
But I am expecting @liuzhou to chime in with what he eats IN China.


 

[Annie_H]

Over the last holidays I starting looking for shrimp recipes to get a bit out of my comfort zone. Try new things. EG searching has 10,000 mentions and 300+ pages, but no 'Shrimp: The Topic'.  

Seems all other seafood like fish and oysters for example, in restaurants, and in the best seafood suppliers, often do not mention the variety of shrimp unless it is split rock shrimp or sometimes 'local fresh caught Carolina'. 

Even when I order fried shrimp heads, no mention of the variety. (I need to ask more questions)

So, I went down the rabbit hole about various shrimp varieties and the different water temps where they grow and thrive. 

One example is DelPacifico blue shrimp

Seems only FultonFishMarket has the head-on. Fulton is open 2am-7am. Must be offered somewhere in the city. but I ran out of time. 

Their collective of boats is worth a view, Pacifico boats/sails --motor out, then raise their sails. 

 

[Dejah]

On 5/13/2023 at 7:54 PM, C. sapidus said:

 

Cubed lamb shoulder with garlic, ginger, curry leaves, garam masala, cumin, turmeric, cayenne, and green chilies, finished with black pepper and lemon juice. Served over rice with peas, onion, cardamom, cloves, and cinnamon.

Masoor dal, finished with ghee-fried onion, paanch foran, cumin, turmeric, paprika, cayenne, and tomato. With no paanch foran on hand I ground up equal parts cumin, kala jeera, aniseed, coriander, and fenugreek.

Rice and dal were from a pamphlet-sized 1986 cookbook, probably the first Indian recipes I ever tried.

Looks SO good! May have to make this once gardening is done!

 

[Norm Matthews]

Crab legs are still on sale at this one store. 

[liamsaunt]

My fish share dropped off the dreaded Acadian redfish yesterday.  It's been a long time since they've given it to us, so I won't complain too much.  I ground it up and made it into Thai flavored fish cakes that we ate in lettuce wraps with some rice and cucumber salad.

 

[liuzhou]

麻辣牛肉炒饭 (má là niú ròu chǎo fàn), Mala (numbing and hot) beef fried rice.

 

 

[Dejah]

Way too windy for playing in the dirt, so a good opportunity to play catch-up instead!

Haven't done chicken feet for a year or so. Chinese grocery store had some big feet in, so I couldn't resist!
This is my usual set up outside: deep fat drying on the old turkey fryer burner, and a bucket of ice water to immerse the feet immediately after. This is followed by braising in aromatics for a couple of hours.

            

 

Delivered some to my brother and s-i-l at 9:30 when I had finished steaming them with the sauce (9 pm!) They called at 10 and said they ate all of them (12 feet!) for midnight snack. LOL!

                                                                                 
 

Was hoping I'd have some for the freezer, but after sharing with curious friends, none left!

 

I had also picked up soy bean sprouts at the grocery along with shrimp dumplings. Working down on my reserve of joong from last June! Time to make again once I finish planting all the flowers.

 

                                                                              

First BBQ of the season:

 

                                                                              

 

Had a request from a friend going thru' a difficult time: our sesame chicken, Soo's #111. Made veg fried rice as well, but the Romano beans and lap cheung were for us!

 

                                                                              

 

Had another piece of steak left and had thawed shrimp which I didn't need for my friend, so did up the combo for ourselves. Reheated the leftover potato on the BBQ as well.

 

                                                                               

It's been a while since Superstore Flashfood had any protein on for 50% off. Yesterday, at 5 am, I picked up packages of turkey scallopini, so it was Turkey Katsu for supper.  Rather than the the heavier katsu sauce, we had mango chili sauce.

                                                                              

 

 

[scamhi]

dinner of pan seared pork chops with calabrian chilis, garlic and parsley. chicken stock and butter

a Spanish wine along with it from Raul Perez

[Anna N]

 

Progresso Italian wedding soup. Miles ahead of Campbell's version.  (Pottery by @patris.)

[patris]

35 minutes ago, Anna N said:

 

Progresso Italian wedding soup. Miles ahead of Campbell's version.  (Pottery by @patris.)

That soup looks tasty! I’d tell you that my favorite Progresso soup is Macaroni Bean, but I suspect you’d prefer not to think about that. And I believe I remember that bowl and you finding each other at my table years ago when you and @Kerry Beal stopped for breakfast as you were heading to PMCA in Pennsylvania!

[Ann_T]

Pizza Night. 

 

Sausage, Mushroom and Green Olives.

Same day dough. 

[weinoo]

14 hours ago, liamsaunt said:

My fish share dropped off the dreaded Acadian redfish yesterday.

 

I had delicious Acadian redfish in Portland recently!!

 

 

 

[gfweb]

On 5/22/2023 at 12:43 PM, weinoo said:

 onions, leeks, shallots, garlic,scallions.

 

no ramps?

[Kim Shook]

@kayb – Good Lord your potluck meal sounds delicious!  And I’m so glad you made your own Shoney’s pie – I know it was so much better than theirs!  And I love all the deviled eggs in the middle of the table that you posted.  Though I have to say that all the purchased bread makes me a little sad.  I can remember southern reunions and homecomings with skillets full of biscuits and cornbread and loaves of yeast bread and float-off-the-plate tender dinner rolls.  (I know you said that your folks didn't do yeast breads, but they did in VA and NC when I was a kid.)  The subdued competition among the ladies for the lightest biscuits and the watching out of the corner of their eyes for people pinching up the last crisp cornbread crumbs.  Sigh.  I completely understand the why of it, but I miss it a lot. 

 

@liuzhou – Happy Birthday!  So glad you were able to enjoy that lovely meal at HOME!!

 

@liuzhou and @Dejah – thank you so much for the information on Chow Mein.  I told Mr. Kim all about it over our Chinese dinner tonight.  I read what you all had said and showed him your photo, Dejah.  He grew up with his mom making the awful La Choy canned stuff, so he didn’t know anything else existed until I told him tonight.  We both wonder now if any of our local Chinese restaurants serves proper Chow Mein and we just don’t know because we wouldn’t have ever ordered it – assuming, as we would, that it would be that crappy version.  We know that his mom still sometimes orders it because she’s mentioned that one place or another does a good or a bad job. I’m going to ask her what she gets when she orders.  We’re willing to give it a try if it is as you two described it! 

 

@Senior Sea Kayaker – I believe that scallop sausage would make me completely lose my mind.  I can’t imagine just how good that has to be. 

 

Thursday night dinner was leftover onion rings from our lunch at Shoney’s (I told about that in the Lunch thread) and the classic sandwich I brought home to have for dinner:

The “Slim Jim”. One of my old teen years favorites.  Ham, Swiss cheese, lettuce, tomato, and 1000 Island dressing on a sub roll.  Growing up, I actually frequented a Big Boy restaurant rather than a Shoney’s so the bread was slightly different, but this was as close as I could get.  And it was good. 

 

Friday was pizza night – this time from a different place than last time (which was pretty ordinary).  I made a salad:

 

And set out some of Jessica’s never ending pasta salad leftover from our Mother’s Day picnic:

 

Mr. Kim got cheesy bread and sausage and onion pizza:

 

 

And…it was pretty good.  Not great.  Better than the last place at least.  I would never say that growing up in the Washington DC area, I grew up with great pizza.  But it was SO much better than anything I’ve tasted in the Richmond area.  Between the suburban Italian restaurants in Alexandria, the slice joints in the District and summer time pizza at Ocean City MD and Rehoboth Beach, I find myself being a bit of a snob about southern pizza. 

 

Mr. Kim did his best-ever smoked butts this past week.  Some coming together of the perfect cut of pork, the perfect time and temperature, and maybe magic.  In our experience usually when you “pull” the pork you get a lot of well-cooked meat that is easily pulled and a decent amount of pork that you squeeze and it just melts out of your grasp – not mushy, just perfectly tender.  Then there’s always a little bit of meat that is stringy and hard to pull – you really have to work at it and you hope for as little of it as possible.  These four butts were probably 80% melting and 20% easily pull-able.  No stringy stuff at all.  Just amazing.  So that was dinner Saturday, along with some canned (and local) Brunswick stew.  The BBQ:

 

And this is what I do with it:

Which I believe grieves Mr. Kim 🤣.  But growing up eating central NC and VA BBQ, I can’t help it.  I never heard of “pulled pork” until I was in my 30s probably.  It was either sliced (which NO ONE got), chopped (my family’s choice), or minced.  My sandwich with slaw and stew:

 

Dinner last night was a charcuterie-style spread with some dear friends at their house.  We brought the meats and cheeses and they had the crackers, fruits, veggies, pickles and dessert.  The spread:

 

From upper left whiskey and pear preserves, Gouda, mustard, leberkase, kabanos meat sticks, Havarti, salami, coppa, prosciutto, ham, and Cheddar. 

 

 

A couple of plates:

 

There were also pita chips, goat cheese, brandy/cherry jam, Brie, and some dessert bars (lemon, chocolate, and 7-Layer) and paletas. 

 

Jessica is out overnight tonight pet sitting, so we had an impromptu date night.  Mr. Kim suggested dinner at Yen Ching and I am incapable of turning down Chinese food.  Soups:

Wonton.

 

…and hot and sour.

 

Mr. Kim got an egg roll and I got crab Rangoon:

Which was probably a mistake.  We both only ate half of these, but we were too full to each much of our meals.  We ended up bringing a lot home.

 

I got one of my standards – Mu Shu Pork without mushrooms:

I have no idea why the sweet and sour sauce and the hoisin look like they have Sterno fires burning in them. 

 

And Mr. Kim got the barbequed duck:

In all the years we’ve been coming here we’ve never tasted this.  It was very good.  

[Honkman]

Cauliflower braised in a mixture of water, tomato paste, onions, garlic, garam masala, ginger. Finished with yoghurt, cilantro and cashews. Served with naan

[weinoo]

8 hours ago, gfweb said:

 

no ramps?

 

I used what I had for different purposes...

 

[rotuts]

@weinoo

 

BTW  :  how long do let the ramp ' pickle '

 

before ' service ? '

[Annie_H]

Pizza night here as well. The usual olive, artichoke, prosciutto. Except for the added eggs. Ring mold was meant for testing the melting quality of grated CypressGrove LambChopper. DH veto wanted eggs. Since the second pie we for todays breakfast/lunches, the egg was a nice bite. 

I'll test the LambChopper on a toasted slice of boule under the broiler on parchment. Should make a nice cheese skirt. 

Shared side salad. 

 

[liamsaunt]

Cedar planked salmon with spicy roasted red pepper rouille, more local asparagus, and a giant crispy potato cake cut into wedges

 

 

 

This morning I used a piece of the leftover salmon to make this salad for my Dad, which I brought over for him to enjoy for dinner this evening.  

 

[mgaretz]

Wings in the Speedi along with corn in the MW.

 

 

[Anna N]

16 minutes ago, liamsaunt said:

Cedar planked salmon

Both meals look delicious but oh that salad! It is amazing.