Dinner 2024

[MaryIsobel]

40 minutes ago, YvetteMT said:

Fried halibut and shrimp.  No vegetables were harmed tonight!

I would glady trade my freezer pea soup fand sourdough toast for your shrimp!

[Neely]

Our iconic dinner again… lamb chops, peas and mashed potato with mint sauce. 
 

[Paul Bacino]

Short rib dinner/ mash / beets

 

 

 

 

 

[dcarch]

14 hours ago, Neely said:

I do understand people like to sous vide and I have had pork done this way… very melt in the mouth,

( slightly mushy though I thought  )  BUT I HAVE to say … that is an awful lot of trouble to cook a piece of pork when you could slow roast in the oven straight from the shopping basket. I truely don’t know why you would do all that to a beautiful piece of meat. Apologies for critical speak out, but couldn’t hold it in. 

Reasonable comments, no apologies needed.

Not to disagree with your views, just my own idiosyncrasies

1.    Check weather report for next 10 days, and day of party.

You don’t need do this step if you are not planning for a big party.

 

2.    Deep cuts into pork and brush seasoning into cuts, and marinate for 48 hours.

Standard for any cooking practice, not just for sous vide, if you want deeper flavor.

 

3.    Freeze pork for 48 hours.

You put your pork in the refrigerator, don’t you? I put it in the freezer. Takes about the same amount of time.

 

4.    Vacuum bag pork. 

10 minutes of work for me to start cooking the pork. A lot less work than most other cooking with pots and pans methods. No dish washing and scrubbing for me after cooking.

 

5.    Sous vide pork at 141 F for 12 hours, 145 F for 8 hours and finish at 151 F for 8 hours. Refrigerate.

Each temperature adjustment took me 10 seconds. Eliminating the need for sticking a thermometer many times to find (hopefully) the centers of a large cold pork with a big bone in the center and thick fat layers. Each time sticking the thermometer takes how long? How much microbes do you introduce into the uncooked center of the meat? How much temperature change each time you open the oven to check? As they say, “If you are looking, you are not cooking.”

 

6.    Night time outside temperature was 51 F, cold smoke pork for 6 hours.

I used a smoke tube. No work for 6 hours.

 

7.    Day of party, low temperature pork in BBQ with smoke tube 175 F? 6 hours. 200 F for 4 hours, finally 500F 15 minutes.

Since I knew the sous vide process garanteed me that the meat had been perfectly cooked inside and out. This final step really required no attention to do.

 

8.    Pour boiling water over large ceramic platter to make platter hot, then plating and serve pork.

I understand perfectly the descriptions above sound laborious, but in reality, I spent most of the time entertaining the guests while the huge pork was well timed and perfectly cooked.

Basically, I am not a good cook like many of you are. To me sous vide is a tool for dummy cooks like me. No skill needed to avoid embarrassments of a failed big party.

 

Thanks.

 

dcarch

 

[lemniscate]

1 hour ago, dcarch said:

To me sous vide is a tool for dummy cooks like me. No skill needed to avoid embarrassments of a failed big party.

 

Absolutely agree.  I've been on the panic side of things not working out while many hungry people wait (before sous vide was a consumer thing) .  A few tasks parceled out a few days ahead makes hosting so much more enjoyable.   Especially the main entree meat.

 

My entire freezer is filled with meats that have been seasoned, sous-vided, and parceled or are uncooked but ready to sous vide right out of freezer.   Sous vide to bring to temp or fully cook.   That time is freed up for sides, or socializing/relaxing.

 

 

[Ann_T]

I've had a craving for ham ever since I saw @Neely's dinner. 

Bought a ham the other day and decided we would have a ham dinner tonight.

Made the potato gratin with chicken broth that Moe loves along with sweet potatoes with caramelized onions and steamed asparagus.

[Maison Rustique]

Have been really sick  for a couple of days (doc feels unrelated to hip) so I have had nothing but ginger tea and bone broth for a couple of days. Will ease back into trying to eat today. Doc says low fat and no dairy for 2 days. I can't even look at food pix right now but will catch up on your delicious meals later.

[Smithy]

I had a houseful of family/company last weekend. When they left they willingly took the things they'd eat but I wouldn't, but that still left a LOT of food here. Last night the crudites had to go; I'm tired of chewing on a bowlful of raw cauliflower, broccoli, carrots (etc) and they weren't going to last much longer.

 

Sheet pan dinner to the rescue! I cut it all into bite-sized pieces, added a few chunks of pancetta and a half sausage I found in the freezer. Tossed all with olive oil, yogurt, turmeric, cumin and a bit of salt, and stuck it in the oven until it was the right golden brown.

 

 

It needed more sauce at the table. I was out of yogurt and couldn't be bothered to make tahini sauce at the time. After I shot the photo I added sour cream. It tasted good, but I'll spare you the photo. Trust me, some things taste better than they look - and sour cream mixed into that bowl of goodness is one of 'em.

[liuzhou]

6 minutes ago, Smithy said:

and a half sausage I found in the freezer

 

I'm delighted to learn I'm not the only person who finds such oddities in the freezer.

 

 

[Norm Matthews]

Ever since Charlie graduated from high school, he has been looking for chicken fried steak like they had in the cafeteria. We heard the oldest restaurant in Kansas (Hays House) is famous for theirs and were planning to give it a try some day... it is a two hour trip from here. Every so often I come across a recipe that I hope will be the one but never found it.  The other day I finally found the password to get into the iCloud and found some really ancient stuff. One was a complete cookbook of recipes from restaurants and two of them were for Country Fried Steak. I may never find that entry again to see what the date was but it was copied to my computer some 24 years ago. The ISBN number is tor Threadgills, not the cookbook I had with it in it. The one for the country steak is from Threadgills.  I used Paula Deans recipe for the biscuits. I don't know anything about that restaurant.  I used a mix for the mashed potatoes and one for the gravy. He really liked it. He said it was better than the cafeteria, like a gourmet version and that he was shocked that I finally came up with a winner. He liked the biscuits better too.

 

Edited October 12 by Norm Matthews (log)

[Shelby]

On 10/10/2024 at 7:56 AM, dcarch said:

I am not a good cook like many of you are

OH that is SO not true!!!  You're amazing!  Your creations are so inspiring.

[Shel_B]

Simmering Vegetable Stock ...

[Tropicalsenior]

1 hour ago, Shel_B said:

Simmering Vegetable Stock ...

After your post in food funnies, I'm glad to see that it's vegetable stock.

[Neely]

On 10/11/2024 at 12:55 PM, Ann_T said:

I've had a craving for ham ever since I saw @Neely's dinner. 

Your ham looks delicious @Ann_T

Potatoes Gratin/ Scalloped potatoes really do go with it. 

We had Thai green chicken curry for dinner… not too spicy but just enough. 

[chromedome]

14 hours ago, Tropicalsenior said:

After your post in food funnies, I'm glad to see that it's vegetable stock.

...and not even baby vegetables, at that.

[Tempest63]

I haven’t visited the site recently, work and other commitments have not left me with much spare time but after shooting yesterday I kept back two partridges which I prepped and roasted today. Served with roasted potatoes and roasted beetroot, steamed Brussels and carrots, and a red wine and redcurrant sauce. Smashing!

 

From this.

 

To this

 

And ultimately this.

Edited October 13 by Tempest63 (log)

[Tempest63]

On 10/11/2024 at 1:33 PM, Maison Rustique said:

Have been really sick  for a couple of days (doc feels unrelated to hip) so I have had nothing but ginger tea and bone broth for a couple of days. Will ease back into trying to eat today. Doc says low fat and no dairy for 2 days. I can't even look at food pix right now but will catch up on your delicious meals later.

Wishing you a speedy recovery and hearty appetite.

[gfweb]

Pork tonkatsu

 

[Honkman]

Quick dinner with polenta and eggplant ragu - polenta finished with plenty of parnesan and the ragu was just seared eggplant and diced tomatoes and afterwards cooked in tomato juice and water with oregano, garlic and basil

[Ann_T]

Pizza Saturday night.

Dough had been in the fridge for two days.

Pepperoni and mushroom. 

[Norm Matthews]

We've been eating up leftovers lately, including a few Ruben sandwiches made from corned beef found in the freezer. No pictures though.  I used up a lemon cake mix today using whole milk instead of water, melted butter in place of the oil and doubled the egg count.  I topped it with cherry icing and called it a cherry lemonade cake. 

[YvetteMT]

(Feeling like Sandra Lee posting this barely homemade dinner)

Rummo gf pasta, garlicky greens from Tattooed Chef, leftover breast from a purchased rotisserie chicken,  sautéed mushrooms.  Not pictured pecorino (which wasn't a compliment, too strong). Next time, cream instead of pasta water. 

 

 

[C. sapidus]

Mrs. C made air-fried halibut and beet salad

 

 

I made dry-fried green beans and baked sweet potato with chipotle butter

 

[Honkman]

Thai inspired Chicken Curry with Eggplants - First you make the spice paste by pureeing  garlic, scallions, lemongrass, serano chili, ginger, makrut lime leaves, thai basil stems, fish sauce, corn starch and brown sugar. Stir fry diced chicken breast and then sliced eggplant before cooking both and the spice paste in coconut milk and chicken broth. Finished with thai basil, lime zest and juice. Served with jasmine rice.

[pastameshugana]

I was craving Mexican, and the family was out again. When I get to cook on my own, it's very cathartic. I work from home, and it's a mostly 24/7 kind of job, so when I can get ahead enough to devote time to cooking it just feels good. 

 

Put on some Stevie Ray Vaughan and went to work!

 

Had to cut 'tortillas' out of some 'wraps' from the store. Mrs. Meshugana is the tortilla maker in our house. The right size to cut was the lid from our sugar container:

 

 

Melted some cheese and fried the shells in the cheese for something a little different:

 

My wife absolutely loves elote, and we haven't had it in years. Boiled the cobs, stripped them, mixed with butter and a dab of plain yoghurt (in lieu of sour cream), some lime juice (and a wedge), and topped with chili powder and crumbled South African feta. Can't get cotija here, but this worked out well. The sweet corn, plus the sour and chili were perfect:

 

Mexican rice from a random recipe on the internet. Turned out better than I was hoping, and my wife is a little bitter because she said it's better than hers (I disagree) and she's been doing it for years. The mince was pretty standard seasoning and some onion/garlic:

 

And for dessert, I modified a fudge brownie box mix with: Dark Lindt chocolate pieces, cinnamon, and chili powder to make 'Mexican Hot Chocolate Brownies.' These were wonderful. The spices complimented it perfectly, and the little chunks of dark chocolate were lovely little surprises:

 

Edited October 15 by pastameshugana (log)