Dinner 2023

[lindag]

I had a couple of corned beefs in the big freezer that were taking up valuable space for far too long so I took one out to thaw.

Tomorrow I'm looking forward to a real New England Boiled Dinner.

And my friend suggest items for the leftovers such as Reubens, hash (I like it Red Flannel) as well as ordinary sandwiches.  And Probably other dishes we haven't though of yet.  Casseroles maybe?

[Tropicalsenior]

2 minutes ago, lindag said:

ordinary sandwiches

There's nothing ordinary about a thick corned beef sandwich on rye with Swiss cheese, mustard and maybe, a little bit of horse radish. I haven't been able to have one of those for years. If you make one, please don't post pictures.

[Shelby]

2 hours ago, lindag said:

I had a couple of corned beefs in the big freezer that were taking up valuable space for far too long so I took one out to thaw.

Tomorrow I'm looking forward to a real New England Boiled Dinner.

And my friend suggest items for the leftovers such as Reubens, hash (I like it Red Flannel) as well as ordinary sandwiches.  And Probably other dishes we haven't though of yet.  Casseroles maybe?

I have one I've been eyeing in my freezer, too.  Mainly for the sandwiches.

 

You could do a reuben pizza in the Breville--sauce with Thousand Island, top with onions, Swiss, corned beef and kraut.

[lindag]

I ran across this recipe courtesy of SpendwithPennies.com

Corned Beef Casserole with Cabbage
A zesty cheese sauce flavored with Worcestershire and Dijon mustard marries tender chunks of corned beef with cabbage, carrots, and potatoes.

I think it may be just what I'm looking for.
 

Prep Time20minutes minutes
Cook Time1hour hour
 

▢4 russet potatoes peeled and diced
▢3 carrot chopped
▢6 cups cabbage uncooked
▢3 cups leftover corned beef
Sauce
▢¼ cup butter
▢¼ cup onion diced
▢¼ cup flour
▢¼ teaspoon salt

▢¾ teaspoons pepper
▢1 ½ cup low sodium chicken broth
▢1 ¼ cups milk
▢1 ½ tablespoons dijon mustard
▢¾ teaspoons Worcestershire
▢1 cup swiss cheese
▢1 cup mozzarella cheese
Instructions 
Preheat oven to 375°F.
Add potatoes to cold water in a large pot. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and cook until tender, about 15 minutes. Add cabbage and carrots for the last 10 minutes of cooking. Drain and set aside.
Heat butter in a pan over medium heat. Add onion and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Whisk in flour, salt, and pepper and cook about 2 minutes. Gradually add chicken broth and milk a little bit at a time while whisking.
Add dijon and Worcestershire sauce. Continue whisking over medium heat until thickened and bubbly.
Remove from heat and stir in the cheeses until melted.
Combine the drained potato mixture, corned beef, and sauce. Pour into a greased 9×13 baking dish.
Bake uncovered for 25-30 minutes or until hot and bubbly

[liamsaunt]

A couple of recent "I really need to go food shopping" dinners.  Rigatoni with turkey meatball (the sauce and meatballs are homemade but from my freezer)

 

 

Pea risotto

 

[Duvel]

I do not care in general for German winters - cold, dark & wet. Had to do a plant inspection today and felt more than ready for the few good parts of the German winter: Grünkohl with copious amounts of pork products.

 

Sooo … pork belly, blood sausage and  Leberknödel, all accompanied by onion-bacon dumplings and Grünkohl that had been boiled into submission over 2.5h …

 

 

The blood sausage was from my local butcher and literally melted in your mouth. Outstanding 🤗

 

 

All enjoyed with an Austrian “autumn” brew - bit sweet, but worked well with Grünkohl …

 

 

Family is not fond of that type of German cuisine, so they got chicken baked with cream and mushrooms and steamed string beans …

 

 

Definitely no complaints. Eyeing a digestif right now …

[rotuts]

continuing my 8 x 8 studies :

 

Turkey Slab w TJ's Tikka Masala :

 

mise

 

:

 

the TJ's Tikka is an 8 oz paste 

 

350 F 30 min , rested , refrigerated :

 

 

plop the turkey slab in the 8 x 8 , cover w the Tikka packet , bake    

 

not looking appetizing at all.

 

sectioned 

 

 

continuers to look questionable .  the TJ's Tikka is very tasty .  plenty of spice . some after glow,   not hot

 

I like it a lot.  interesting info on the packet :  manufactured 1 March 23  , good until June ' 24 .

 

ive had it for several month  waiting for a call-up.

 

Ill be stoicking up , as TJ's loves to D/C items I like.

 

  the above is not ' saucy '

 

final plate :

 

 

the usual LP iPot veg , Tj's dried green chili flakes , EVOO from Tj's 

 

( not this stuff :  https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/04/world/europe/olive-oil-fraud-italy-spain.html?searchResultPosition=1  )

 

Campari tomats , window green onions.

 

the turkey was nicely cooked , but Tikka , which had very good Indian-Rsh flavor and aroma 

 

was not saucy . Saucy for certain categories of Indian Cuisine , makes those dishes 

 

I have ideas about solving that , next time  :

 

two packets of Tj's Tikka , one can NoSalt Campells cream of mushroom soup are initial ideas .

 

a good initial trial Id say .  for me.

 

 

Edited December 5, 2023 by rotuts (log)

[rotuts]

@Duvel  

 

tasty looking porky plate.  perfect for the weather you describe.  

 

hopefully w the proper long term statin background

 

what is on that fork ?  is that the blood sausage ?

 

did  not realize they came in ' chunky '

 

bits of potato ? pork fat ?

[Duvel]

Yeap - blood sausage. Chunky bits are pork fat and onions …

 

 

[Captain]

Oven baked bangers, potato and sweet potato mash.

[mgaretz]

Pot roast made in the IP with chuck, red and yellow small potatoes, carrots, celery and onion.  

 

 

[rotuts]

@mgaretz 

 

that looks very tasty .

 

would you share the details ? 

[Honkman]

Lentil Stew with Vegetables - depuy lentils cooked with carrots, broccolini, green beans, cherry tomatoes, onion, garlic, bouquet garni in vegetable broth. Finished with red wine vinegar, olive oil and parmesan.

[mgaretz]

6 hours ago, rotuts said:

@mgaretz 

 

that looks very tasty .

 

would you share the details ? 

 

Ingredients: Chuck, about 4 lbs trimmed and cut into approx. 1/2 pound pieces.  One large onion cut into large pieces (about 6) and layers separated, 2 large celery ribs also cut fairly large.  About a pound or more of carrots, cut large.  About 3/4 lb of small potatoes.  Broth is 3/4 cup water, 1 tbs each of caramel food coloring, soy sauce, worcestershire sauce and some red wine to make up to 1 cup or so.  Seasonings are 1 tsp dried time, 1 tsp garlic powder, salt and pepper.   This is for an 8 qt IP.  For a six, use less of everything except the broth.

 

Procedure:  On the bottom of the pot place the onion, celery and the place the meat on top so it's not resting on the pan bottom.  Sprinkle the seasonings on the meat and then pour the broth onto the meat, covering as much of the meat surface as you can.  Cook on High Pressure for 30 minutes then quick release. Add the carrots and potatoes dunking them in the liquid as best you can (there will be a lot more liquid now).  Cook on High Pressure for an additional 6 minutes then natural release.  If you are in a hurry you can release any residual pressure after 30 minutes.  Spoon everything out into a serving bowl.  You can add as much or as little of the liquid as you desire.   Eat.

 

Note:  No pre-browning of the meat is necessary.  The caramel coloring in the broth does all the work for us.

Edited December 6, 2023 by mgaretz (log)

[liuzhou]

酱爆鱿鱼 (jiàng bào yóu yú), flash fried squid in chilli sauce. I ordered this medium hot, but this being a Sichuan restaurant, that meant incendiary. Good though. With rice.

 

 

 

 

 

[liamsaunt]

Roasted cauliflower in a Thai flavored winter squash and coconut sauce, with rice.

 

[Kim Shook]

@Duvel– going to a Christmas market in Germany is Mr. Kim’s and my dream.  We watch every YouTube video we can find about them.  We follow a few British and American ex-pats who live there and it has been so wonderful to watch them experience the markets.  Those lit Christmas stars are on my wishlist.  Incredibly beautiful. Thank you SO much for sharing your day. 

 

@OlyveOyl – those sprouts look precisely perfect and exactly how I want mine.  Unfortunately, mine are never precisely perfect.  Always slightly mushy before they get the perfect browning. 

 

@lindag – that casserole sounds really good.  And I like that website.  I ran across it a while back and everything I’ve tried has been dependable and very good. 

 

We went out for Chinese a couple of nights ago.  Soups:

Wonton, egg drop, and Hot & Sour.

 

Crab Rangoon:

 

My Mu Shu pork:

(sans mushrooms 😁!)

 

Mr. Kim’s Crispy Hot Beef:

 

Jessica’s Salt and Pepper Shrimp:

 

Another night everyone got hungry at different times.  My dinner:

Ham and cheese.

 

Night before last was our Tree Trimming dinner.  The tradition is beef fondue and chocolate fondue for dessert.  We decided to do something easier than beef fondue this year.  We had steaks instead.  Menu:

Steaks                  Lobster tails

Sauces: Bearnaise      Steak sauce      Horseradish      Curry mayo

Green Salad          Broccoli salad       Smashed potatoes           Baguette

 

The steaks were very disappointing:

They look great, but were not.  The one on the left is a NY strip (Mr. Kim’s favorite) and the other two are rib eyes (Jessica’s and mine).  All three were tough and mealy and not very tasty.  Jessica’s actually tasted a bit livery.  I SV’d them at 125F.  The strip was very thick and was cooked perfectly.  But the rib eyes were thinner and by the time I got a good sear on them they were overcooked – probably a medium.  The steaks came from Lidl and weren’t terribly expensive.  I won’t be buying that particular brand again.  I’d heard good things about their meat, but they stock a few different brands, and this was not good.  The lobster tails, on the other hand, were a pleasant surprise.  They was from Tom Leonard’s (a local farm stand-type store that sells a lot of local produce, meats, seafood, etc. – related to Stew Leonard’s if anyone in NE knows of that) and they were inexpensive – 2/$14.  Very small, of course, but they ended up being delicious.  I steamed them at 210F for 10 minutes at which point they were not quite done.  I deshelled them:

I was proud of the fact that I didn’t mangle them like I did last time I made lobster tails.  When I was ready to serve them, I sautéed them in butter.  They turned out great:

 

The sauces and some of Jessica’s pickled vegetables:

Horseradish, Green Goddess, and curry sauce.  There was also steak sauce, but no one needs to see a bottle of A1 😊.  

 

Broccoli salad:

As usual, my ratios were off – too little broccoli to add-ins.  But it tasted good. 

 

Jessica’s beautiful salad:

with arugula, endive, goat cheese, dried cranberries, carrots, and her pickled shallots.  Served with an orange vinaigrette. 

 

Béarnaise (like @Shelby's from a powdered mix 😊), bread, and smashed roasted potatoes:

I know lots of folks make these potatoes, but the first time I ever heard of them was when @Marlene made them and shared the recipe back in 2008.  I’ve served them countless times over the years.  They are so great for entertaining because you can do all the prep ahead of time. 

 

My plate:

 

We usually do chocolate fondue for dessert, but it was just too late.  So, we had a few German cookies from my Lidl haul:

Speculoos and cinnamon stars. 

[lindag]

OMG!!!  What a wonderful spread.  Everything looks so delicious.

[Duvel]

12 minutes ago, Kim Shook said:

So, we had a few German cookies from my Lidl haul:

Speculoos and cinnamon stars

I love Zimtsterne … the perfect Christmas cookie. This year, a hip German smoothie brand even brought out a Christmas smoothie with Zimtstern flavor …

 

[rotuts]

@Kim Shook 

 

everything looks great !

 

sorry the steaks were so disappointing .

 

but the Company was outstanding , though .

[Captain]

Beef and mushroom pie.

[C. sapidus]

Stopped by the Latino market. I can never resist hot tamales at checkout

 

 

Dinner was Mrs. C's always-tender pork loin medallions, accompanied by sauteed chayote with fried garlic and Meyer lemon.

 

[EnriqueB]

I found red Swiss chard at the market, which I find so much more beautiful than the usual chard found here. Struggled to find a nice way to plate it nicely. Ended up sous-viding the stalks so they keep color, blanching just a few seconds some full leafs and then move to ice water to keep color too, and use them in the plate bottom, and steaming the remaining leafs to form a kind of flower. Sided with dry raisins rehydrated in sweet Pedro Ximénez wine, and a iberian ham velouté sauce:

 

Using the same ham stock as the one for the velouté, I pressure-cooked chickpeas with milk-cup mushrooms and rice&blood sausage ("morcilla de Burgos"). Accompanied by fried vasque green peppers ("piparras"):

 

Dessert was a coconut gelato I posted on the Ninja Creami thread.

[liuzhou]

The local pizza place was doing a special deal tonight.

 

意大利香肠披萨甄单人餐 (yì dà lì xiāng cháng pī sà zhēn dān rén cān), Italian sausage pizza selection single meal.

 

This was comprised of:

 

8” pepperoni pizza
 

Choice of snack (crispy chicken nuggets, French fries, chicken and avocado salad, shrimp and mango salad, or spicy, crispy lotus root.)

 

Choice of beverage (lemon tea, Americano, café latté, Coca Cola, iced coffee (no sugar), iced coffee (with sugar), hot coffee (no sugar), hot coffee (with sugar))

 

My picks in bold.

 

 

 

可口可乐 （kě kǒu kě lè）Coca Cola

 

 

Edited December 7, 2023 by liuzhou (log)

[Paul Bacino]

@EnriqueB-- nice tight plating