Dinner 2023

[lindag]

One night this week I'll make a corn chowder with bay scallops using:

 

6 slices thick-cut bacon, chopped, 1 pound leeks, white and light-green parts only, halved lengthwise, sliced thin, and washed thoroughly, 1¼ teaspoons table salt, divided, 1 teaspoon pepper, 1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme, 1½ pounds russet potatoes, peeled and cut into ½-inch pieces
2 (8-ounce) bottle clam juice, 1½ cups water
3 ears corn, kernels cut from cobs and pulp scraped fromcobs and reserved
1½ pounds small bay scallops, tendons removed and 1 cup heavy cream

 

Cook bacon in Dutch oven over medium-high heat until fat is rendered and bacon is nearly crispy, 6 to 8 minutes. Add leeks, 1 teaspoon salt, pepper, and thyme and cook until leeks are softened, about 4 minutes.

 

Add potatoes and cook, stirring constantly, until mixture is sticky from released starch, about 2 minutes. Add clam juice, water, and corn pulp and bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer, stirring occasionally, until potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes.

Using slotted spoon, transfer 1 cup potatoes to bowl and mash with potato masher until smooth. Return mashed potatoes to pot. Sprinkle scallops with remaining ¼ teaspoon salt. Stir scallops and corn kernels into pot and simmer until scallops are cooked through and corn is tender, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in cream. Season with salt and pepper to taste. 

 

[Deephaven]

The corn chowder with scallops post made me contemplate some of the corn stock I had in the freezer, but didn't feel like a soup so....corn risotto with scallops.

 

[Dejah]

@lindag Corn pulp! Delicious! I cut the kernels off the cob for hubby, who is cautious about his front teeth. I am rewarded with the corn pulp as I gnaw on the cobs. LOL!
@Senior Sea Kayaker: I LOVE beef rib bones - so much flavour in the gnarly bits.

Last night: Stuffed tofu puffs with wonton filling from the freezer. I deep fried them then added to the stir-fried Chinese cabbage and Shitaki mushrooms in oyster sauce.

 

                                                         

 

                                                         

Edited August 28, 2023 by Dejah (log)

[MaryIsobel]

5 hours ago, lindag said:

One night this week I'll make a corn chowder with bay scallops using:

 

6 slices thick-cut bacon, chopped, 1 pound leeks, white and light-green parts only, halved lengthwise, sliced thin, and washed thoroughly, 1¼ teaspoons table salt, divided, 1 teaspoon pepper, 1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme, 1½ pounds russet potatoes, peeled and cut into ½-inch pieces
2 (8-ounce) bottle clam juice, 1½ cups water
3 ears corn, kernels cut from cobs and pulp scraped fromcobs and reserved
1½ pounds small bay scallops, tendons removed and 1 cup heavy cream

 

Cook bacon in Dutch oven over medium-high heat until fat is rendered and bacon is nearly crispy, 6 to 8 minutes. Add leeks, 1 teaspoon salt, pepper, and thyme and cook until leeks are softened, about 4 minutes.

 

Add potatoes and cook, stirring constantly, until mixture is sticky from released starch, about 2 minutes. Add clam juice, water, and corn pulp and bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer, stirring occasionally, until potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes.

Using slotted spoon, transfer 1 cup potatoes to bowl and mash with potato masher until smooth. Return mashed potatoes to pot. Sprinkle scallops with remaining ¼ teaspoon salt. Stir scallops and corn kernels into pot and simmer until scallops are cooked through and corn is tender, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in cream. Season with salt and pepper to taste. 

 

Corn cobs stripped of their kernels were one of the first "gnawing food" that we gave our girls. They were probably somewhere between 6 months and a year. A single bare corn cob would keep them content for at least half an hour!

[Kim Shook]

Good Lord, @Shelby!  I miss a couple of days and you make 97 meals 😉!  Good stuff.  Glad y’all can breathe a little better for a few days!

 

A couple of nights ago, I made @Maggie the Cat’s Shrimp and Corn for the first time this summer.  I figured I’d better get a move on while the corn is still good.  So, we picked up some corn at the produce stand:

 

And I found some Gulf of Mexico large shrimp at Lidl:

Plus a bonus – this lush basil plant:

Lidl sells these for $2.49 – exactly what Kroger charges for a little plastic bubble of a few leaves. This will last me a good 2 months. Finished dish:

So simple and good.  Maggie shared this recipe in 2010 and I’ve made it every summer since.  Sometimes for us and sometimes for guests and always to rave reviews.  I think of Maggie every time I make it ❤️.  To me, that is one of the best things about food – the memories and people that it conjures up.  Served with a salad and a baguette:

 

 

Last night we went to “our place” - Yen Ching, our local and favorite Chinese restaurant.  Their wonderful hot and sour:

We have this everywhere, but theirs is our favorite.  We shared a pupu platter:

So old school, but I love all the classic Chinese-American appetizers – ribs, teriyaki beef, shrimp toast, crab Rangoon, fried chicken wings, and egg rolls.  Unfortunately, this was not their best effort.  Not terrible, but not as good as usual.  We also shared chicken, pork, and shrimp fried rice:

[Shelby]

26 minutes ago, Kim Shook said:

Good Lord, @Shelby!  I miss a couple of days and you make 97 meals 😉!  Good stuff.  Glad y’all can breathe a little better for a few days!

 

A couple of nights ago, I made @Maggie the Cat’s Shrimp and Corn for the first time this summer.  I figured I’d better get a move on while the corn is still good.  So, we picked up some corn at the produce stand:

 

And I found some Gulf of Mexico large shrimp at Lidl:

Plus a bonus – this lush basil plant:

Lidl sells these for $2.49 – exactly what Kroger charges for a little plastic bubble of a few leaves. This will last me a good 2 months. Finished dish:

So simple and good.  Maggie shared this recipe in 2010 and I’ve made it every summer since.  Sometimes for us and sometimes for guests and always to rave reviews.  I think of Maggie every time I make it ❤️.  To me, that is one of the best things about food – the memories and people that it conjures up.  Served with a salad and a baguette:

 

 

Last night we went to “our place” - Yen Ching, our local and favorite Chinese restaurant.  Their wonderful hot and sour:

We have this everywhere, but theirs is our favorite.  We shared a pupu platter:

So old school, but I love all the classic Chinese-American appetizers – ribs, teriyaki beef, shrimp toast, crab Rangoon, fried chicken wings, and egg rolls.  Unfortunately, this was not their best effort.  Not terrible, but not as good as usual.  We also shared chicken, pork, and shrimp fried rice:

That is an excellent price for that basil plant.  I like to buy them in the winter time but they are like $5--still worth it to me but as we all know it sends Ronnie into palpitations. 

[heidih]

@Kim Shook I think of PuPu platters as Polynesian/Tiki/Don Ho

[Katie Meadow]

40 minutes ago, heidih said:

@Kim Shook I think of PuPu platters as Polynesian/Tiki/Don Ho

My late FIL co-opted the use of "PuPu Platter" to mean any appetizer spread; that could include his own cured olives, cheese and crackers, guacamole and chips. Anything you ate along with a drink before dinner was PuPu. One of those mildly annoying things I grew to ignore. He loved appropriating misc. phrases from other languages into his speech. He wasn't really fluid in anything but English, but he could fake it pretty well, giving lectures about physics in mangled French and/or Spanish. Most people, including his wife and children accepted it under the broad umbrella of "charming."  

[heidih]

As a kid in adult body he probably just liked saying Pu Pu as an acceptable thing.

[btbyrd]

BLTs. And peaches and cream.

 

 

[blue_dolphin]

2 minutes ago, btbyrd said:

BLTs. And peaches and cream.

In a similar vein, on our hottest day of the year thus far, I prepared a peach & bourbon milkshake for my dinner.

from Julia Turshen's Small Victories. 

[Honkman]

Green Shakshuka with leek, baby spinach, baby bok choy, parsley, cilantro, basil, garlic, feta, chili, coriander and egg. Served with some avocado, olive oil and lemon juice

[Katie Meadow]

33 minutes ago, btbyrd said:

BLTs. And peaches and cream.

 

 

Perfect and perfect.

[MaryIsobel]

1 hour ago, btbyrd said:

BLTs. And peaches and cream.

 

 

The ultimate summer meal, executed beautifully.

 

[Dante]

Chicken fried steak with the traditional cream gravy, side of home made baked beans

[Dejah]

It was a hot day, temperature "feels like 32C". The A/C was on while I was canning fruit. But, it cooled off in the evening, so it was a quick Beef Curry Stir-fry to warm us up. Still had Romano beans, and I was thinking of the delicious Green Beans in Coconut Milk made by my Malaysian friend, that was it for the vegetables.

 

                                                                                        

 

                                                                                        

[MaryIsobel]

3 hours ago, Honkman said:

Green Shakshuka with leek, baby spinach, baby bok choy, parsley, cilantro, basil, garlic, feta, chili, coriander and egg. Served with some avocado, olive oil and lemon juice

I can just taste the green goodness of that - how inventive!

 

[Senior Sea Kayaker]

Yesterday's dinner: NY striploin (half as I prefer a 4 oz./120 gm. portion), beans with mushrooms, tomato, lettuce, feta and basil salad. Peach livened up with homemade apple habanero jelly. All veg, except mushrooms, from the garden.

Enjoyed with a glass of Cote de Rhone.

 

[liuzhou]

Tonight's episode in my delivery dinner saga is not visually great, but tasted fine.

 

子姜炒牛肉 (zǐ jiāng chǎo niú ròu), young ginger and beef stir-fry. Onion, chilli, young ginger, beef, rice wine and soy sauce.

 

Edited August 29, 2023 by liuzhou (log)

[TicTac]

12 hours ago, btbyrd said:

BLTs. And peaches and cream.

 

 

Looks good...but what's the yellow mustard for?  Chip dip?!

[btbyrd]

2 hours ago, TicTac said:

Looks good...but what's the yellow mustard for?  Chip dip?!

 

My wife has been known to put condiments on her sandwich that some would consider to be... unnatural.

[billyhill]

17 hours ago, heidih said:

As a kid in adult body he probably just liked saying Pu Pu as an acceptable thing.

My mind immediately goes to "A Bug's Life" pupu platter scene.

[Kim Shook]

@heidih – I’m pretty sure you’re right about the origins of the Pupu platter – Trader Vic certainly had one on their menu.  I remember being taken to the Washington DC Trader Vic as a little girl.  It was a popular date spot and my newly single mom had a rule that every few dates had to include me.  So I got exposed to some great restaurants in the 1960s.  I’m betting that that was my first exposure to the Pupu platter.  It certainly spread to Chinese-American restaurants, though.  Growing up in Washington with its Chinatown and neighboring Arlington VA with a huge Asian population, I remember them being ubiquitous. 

 

@Katie Meadow – sounds like FIL was ahead of his time.  I see things labeled “charcuterie boards” with everything in the world on them BUT meats.  Sigh. 

 

@Honkman – your shakshuka is the first one I’ve seen that I think I would eat (I really don’t care at all for the combination of eggs and tomato). Just lovely.

 

Our next door neighbor is, like Mr. Kim, a smoker and they have formed a bit of a friendship based on that.  They bring each other samples of everything they cook.  Last night he brought us his first ever pork belly effort:

 

I sautéed it in a little oil in a nonstick pan:

 

He had made a Korean-style BBQ sauce to go on it:

This was just simply phenomenal.  I can’t wait to have my second piece tonight!

 

Since it’s still August, I’m still serving corn and tomatoes.  Dinner last night was Polish sausage, sauerkraut, fried green tomatoes, regular tomatoes and corn:

 

 

And iceberg lettuce with Jessica’s Creamy Dressing on it:

This dressing is so good that I’m finding I like it best on just salad greens – it really shines without a bunch of other stuff.

[Deephaven]

Was lazy last night and we had a few of everyone's favorite peppers so I made a quick thai'ish green curry.

 

[rotuts]

@Kim Shook 

 

wow.  that pork belly !

 

Im going to have to  look into it .

 

should you learn of the parameters of the cooking , over all 

 

[ no secrets divulged ]    Id like to start thinking about this 

 

How did you use the cut ?  does it come off the smoker  fully cooked 

 

and in texture on the oder of brisket ?   would you simply slice it fo a sandwich ?