Dinner 2023

[C. sapidus]

18 minutes ago, heidih said:

Interesting combo as always. On the red rice - a number of years ago I started seeing  Knorr I think product that was tomato broth.Sure you use a complex blend but is your red coming from tomato paste or puree or? 

 

Red is from a can of fire-roasted tomatoes, which I blended with chicken stock, pickled jalapenos, and cilantro. We always have canned tomatoes on hand.

 

The recipe (Rick Bayless - Everyday Mexican) calls for red salsa, so I approximated.

[Katie Meadow]

1 hour ago, heidih said:

Interesting combo as always. On the red rice - a number of years ago I started seeing  Knorr I think product that was tomato broth.Sure you use a complex blend but is your red coming from tomato paste or puree or? 

I always thought the red color comes from achiote paste or oil made with annatto seed; two ways to get annatto. The paste is usually available from any market that sells a lot of Mexican products, and also from Amazon. It's east to work with as long as you know to soften it with lemon or lime juice rather than water. Makes very good red rice and tomato can certainly be added. 

[heidih]

23 minutes ago, Katie Meadow said:

I always thought the red color comes from achiote paste or oil made with annatto seed; two ways to get annatto. The paste is usually available from any market that sells a lot of Mexican products, and also from Amazon. It's east to work with as long as you know to soften it with lemon or lime juice rather than water. Makes very good red rice and tomato can certainly be added. 

Thanks for that. People use the term Mexican rice as a generic  - the stuff on the side of a combo plate and I think it has more nuance than I know, 

[C. sapidus]

2 hours ago, Katie Meadow said:

I always thought the red color comes from achiote paste or oil made with annatto seed; two ways to get annatto. The paste is usually available from any market that sells a lot of Mexican products, and also from Amazon. It's east to work with as long as you know to soften it with lemon or lime juice rather than water. Makes very good red rice and tomato can certainly be added. 

 

Interesting, I like achiote but have not seen it used to make Mexican/red rice. Sounds good though!

 

All of my Mexican cookbooks use roasted tomatoes for Mexican/red rice. Perhaps achiote rice comes from a particular region.

 

Sounds like a fun research project, thanks!

[Katie Meadow]

I got curious and did minimal searches. Indeed there are plenty of recipes on line that use only tomatoes or tomato paste for Mexican red rice, but there are also plenty that use achiote, with or without tomatoes. It's also used to make Puerto Rican yellow rice. It has a very distinct taste. I'm thinking that many Mexican restaurants serve a blander version with only tomato flavor. It's been a while since I had a "red" rice side in a restaurant, but I don't remember it tasting like achiote. I also like it in a rub or sauce for grilled chicken. I'm sure there is someone on these boards that knows a lot more about it than me.

 

I notice that some of the recipes on line call for achiote powderI; I've never seen it sold in powder form. Once I  tried to make oil with annatto seeds but the seeds were hard to find, so I just stuck with the paste. Really it is more of a soft little brick You break off a chunk and dissolve it into a paste or liquid as desired.

 

Then there's gullah red rice, aka Charleston red rice. That uses tomatoes to give it color and flavor and has a profile as you would expect from the holy trinity and often sausage or shrimp. 

[Honkman]

Leek soup with oyster mushrooms - Leeks are braised, afterwards cut up and majority for of it pureed with the broth and butter. Separately shallots and oyster mushrooms are sautéed and added to the soup with the remaining braised leek and chives. Finished with some olive oil

[Ann_T]

My favourite Chicken Enchiladas.  Copied from a Mexican restaurant no longer in Victoria. 

[liuzhou]

海鲜炒饭 (hǎi xiān chǎo fàn), Seafood Fried Rice

 

 

Shrimp, squid, scallops, mussels. This is my recent fall back when I can't decide what to order. It gets here quick and I like it, so....

 

 

[Kim Shook]

@Dejah – your rib roast is gorgeous!  And those pierogies are making me wish I had an air fryer. 

 

@Ann_T – as always, your hot chicken sandwich with gravy has me craving the same.  I love that you serve it with fries – fries and gravy have been a favorite of mine since I was a young girl.  I used to stop off on my way home from school at the drug store lunch counter and get an order of fries and gravy.  Not comparable to yours, of course, but I never see yours that I don’t think of that experience! 

 

A couple of nights ago:

Cheeseburger, celery, apple.  The quickest and most simple meal I could think of.  The burger was in the fridge from the other night when I had a half a pound of ground beef leftover from making Sloppy Joe filling.  I fried a couple of small patties and put them in the fridge.  I just microwaved the burger, added cheese and heated long enough to melt it.  Added condiments and a little lettuce.  Washed a stalk of celery and added an apple from the fridge.  Less than 5 minutes later and I was eating.  It was completely satisfying.  I'll have to add cooked burgers to my list of things to keep on hand.  I was surprised it was that good.  Or maybe I was just that hungry?  

[C. sapidus]

 

This was a true family meal - I made Brussels sprouts with a mustard cream sauce, Mrs. C filled the crescent rolls with steelhead, and younger (adult) son made a garlic-butter-lemon sauce for the fish.

 

Mrs. C had ordered skull molds for a glass project but they were too deep, hence repurposing for kitchen duties.

[heidih]

1 hour ago, C. sapidus said:

 

This was a true family meal - I made Brussels sprouts with a mustard cream sauce, Mrs. C filled the crescent rolls with steelhead, and younger (adult) son made a garlic-butter-lemon sauce for the fish.

 

Mrs. C had ordered skull molds for a glass project but they were too deep, hence repurposing for kitchen duties.

looks like Simba from Lion King. Tasty? So the fish in the crescent rolls - sauced or? Sounds like fun.

[Honkman]

Toasted pearl couscous with chicken thighs, carrots, chickpeas, onions, parsley, bay leaves, cumin, allspice and pomegranate molasses.

[Honkman]

12 hours ago, liuzhou said:

can't decide what to order.

I might mix it up but I remember that you often posted of many cooked meals but more recently you seem to only order take out

[Dejah]

Using up a piece of the leftover prime rib roast = Beef Stroganoff over pappardelle pasta. Sprinkled on grated Parmesan cheese and crushed chili flakes before eating.

 

                                                                                 

                                                    

[JoNorvelleWalker]

38 minutes ago, Honkman said:

I might mix it up but I remember that you often posted of many cooked meals but more recently you seem to only order take out

 

Not every cook is fully able bodied.

 

[C. sapidus]

2 hours ago, heidih said:

looks like Simba from Lion King. Tasty? So the fish in the crescent rolls - sauced or? Sounds like fun.

 

Simba or Scar? (we recently saw Lion King at the Kennedy Center) 😆

 

Yes, tasty. Mrs. C mixed the steelhead with younger son's garlic-butter-lemon sauce before filling the crescent rolls, so the fish had a nice flavor.

[liuzhou]

11 hours ago, Honkman said:

I might mix it up but I remember that you often posted of many cooked meals but more recently you seem to only order take out

 

Yes, I much prefer to cook but for the last several months I have been in bad health following an accident which left me unable to stand up for more than a couple of minutes. Walking any distance is out of the question, although I can stagger to the door to get my deliveries but not much more, so grocery shopping is impossible, too. Fortunately, the range of choice and the delivery service for everything is very developed here and overall the quality very good in the main.

I am recovering, but slowly, and looking forward to cooking again soon. Meantime, I lie in bed planning what the first meal will be. The delivery service also includes fresh groceries and produce, so I should be able to cook again before turning to 100% normality.

Edited September 8, 2023 by liuzhou (log)

[liuzhou]

A combination of pain and the result of spending most of my time in bed has severely disrupted my sleep patterns, meaning meal times are being judged by my defective inner clock. So tonight's dinner was more like a lunch at dinnertime. I'll probably have dinner for tomorrow's breakfast.

 

遇难三明治 (yù nàn sān míng zhì), bánh mì and 金瓯碳烤鸡肉串 (jīn ōu tàn kǎo jī ròu chuàn), Golden Vietnamese charcoal grilled chicken skewers from a local Vietnamese restaurant called Saigon. The chicken was spectacular. Should have ordered two more.

 

 

Edited September 8, 2023 by liuzhou (log)

[Deephaven]

BBQ chicken breast, sourdough, bufala mozz caprese, caesar

 

 

[Ann_T]

Last night's dinner.

 

Grilled pork loin chops.

[Kerry Beal]

9 hours ago, liuzhou said:

 

Yes, I much prefer to cook but for the last several months I have been in bad health following an accident which left me unable to stand up for more than a couple of minutes. Walking any distance is out of the question, although I can stagger to the door to get my deliveries but not much more, so grocery shopping is impossible, too. Fortunately, the range of choice and the delivery service for everything is very developed here and overall the quality very good in the main.

I am recovering, but slowly, and looking forward to cooking again soon. Meantime, I lie in bed planning what the first meal will be. The delivery service also includes fresh groceries and produce, so I should be able to cook again before turning to 100% normality.

Some lie in bed planning their last meal - nice to hear you are planning your first meal! 
 

 

[liuzhou]

42 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

Some lie in bed planning their last meal - nice to hear you are planning your first meal! 
 

 

 

The way I feel at the moment, my first meal might also be my last! 🤣

[Honkman]

19 hours ago, liuzhou said:

I have been in bad health following an accident which left me unable to stand up for more than a couple of minutes.

Really sorry to hear that and I hope you fully recover soon. I really enjoyed your post about your cooked Chinese dishes, often with a lot of background information in different threads

[Honkman]

3 hours ago, Ganthercage said:

must try this one for sure

It is this Charlie Trotter recipe from hid book Cooking at Home

 

https://www.melissas.com/blogs/soup-stew/braised-leek-soup-with-sauteed-oyster-mushrooms

[Ann_T]

@liuzhou, I'm sorry that you have been dealing with health issues.  Hope you continue to recover and back to feeling better and cooking soon. 

 

Another pizza night.
I had a second batch of dough in the fridge since Sunday. So it had a five day cold fermentation.

Matt used just over 500g of dough to make himself a pizza this afternoon

and I used the remaining piece to bake another Margherita pizza in the OONI tonight.

Easy and quick worknight dinner.