Lunch 2025

blue_dolphin · June 6

1 hour ago, Ddanno said:

Are scallops and halibut reasonably cheap where you are? They're on the upper end of the seafood price scale (ho ho pun very much intended) over here

No, not cheap. I live in southern California. There is no commercial fishery for scallops here though some are collected by divers or collectors at low tides. Good scallops from the east coast are available but expensive here. Halibut is caught locally and I get it regularly from a weekly community supported fishery membership. That isn’t cheap either but I like supporting the local fishers who work in our-well regulated fisheries. Some weeks, I might get “cheaper” fish like rockfish, squid or the grenadier that are an often discarded by-catch from the black cod/sablefish fishery. Some weeks, it’s ahi/big eye tuna, rock crab, locally farmed oysters or mussels or the previously mentioned sablefish. I pay the same every week.

Ddanno · June 6

5 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

No, not cheap. I live in southern California. There is no commercial fishery for scallops here though some are collected by divers or collectors at low tides. Good scallops from the east coast are available but expensive here. Halibut is caught locally and I get it regularly from a weekly community supported fishery membership. That isn’t cheap either but I like supporting the local fishers who work in our-well regulated fisheries. Some weeks, I might get “cheaper” fish like rockfish, squid or the grenadier that are an often discarded by-catch from the black cod/sablefish fishery. Some weeks, it’s ahi/big eye tuna, rock crab, locally farmed oysters or mussels or the previously mentioned sablefish. I pay the same every week.

Oh that sounds amazing. You lucky thing!

Steve Irby · June 7

On 6/5/2025 at 12:46 PM, Smithy said:

Nice job on gussying, @Steve Irby! (I love that word. 😀 )

I was heavily influenced by Jeb Clampett!

Steve Irby · June 7

Probably one of favorite summer meals. Catfish, potato salad and coleslaw. I fried about four servings of fish which turned out to be three portions for me and one for my wife😋. Served with a quick dill pickle tartar sauce and lemon.

**Smithy** · June 7

On 6/5/2025 at 1:39 PM, Smithy said:

I've had a hankering lately for a Reuben sandwich, as mentioned here in the sous vide topic, but haven't gotten around to cooking a corned beef (with or without sous vide help) yet. Yesterday I gave in and bought a Reuben sandwich at my favorite grocery store, and waited while they grilled it in their panini press.

Know what? I like mine better! Time to get going on that corned beef.

On 6/5/2025 at 4:02 PM, Shel_B said:

That's a pretty poor looking Reuben sandwich. The cheese doesn't even look well melted. I'm sure yours would be measureably better. I'm old school, Reubens have no business being on/in/under/near a panini press.

I cooked a corned beef yesterday and cut the slice sizes I want. I used my panini press (yes) on a sandwich comprising the corned beef and slices of gouda and havarti (no Swiss cheese in the house, and I don't like it anyway). The bread is a special bread I've been hoarding in the freezer from a recent California trip. Mayo and mustard on the inside slices; butter for grilling; generous amounts of sauerkraut added after the grilling.

Definitely better than what I bought and showed a few days ago (top photo in this post). There's still room for improvement. This bread, as much as I like it, was missing some sort of kick that the sandwich needed: rye bread, or sourdough bread would have been better. This corned beef wasn't as good as I'd expected either, but that's my fault for keeping it (in its original package) unfrozen well past its best-by date.

Still. I've started scratching that itch!

Shel_B · June 8

Good for you, Nancy.

Explorations of a recipe or a particular dish are often an evolving process with progress being made by experiencing failures and the elimination and adjustment of various ingredients.

**Smithy** · June 8

I reheated the second half of yesterday's sandwich, using my A4 box to try to crisp it again on the outside. I also added pickle juice and a bit of horseradish sauce to give the sandwich the extra oomph that was missing yesterday.

It was better. The pickle juice especially helped, although it made the entire sandwich so gooey that it was easier to eat with a fork.

In addition to this having been the wrong bread for the sandwich, I think that the corned beef I cooked isn't very good. I'll post more about it in the corned beef topic. Even sealed as it's been, I think there was a deterioration in quality because I kept it refrigerated (not frozen) for so long.

Shel_B · June 8

I had a craving for pasta, specifically fusilli, but I didn’t want to spend a lot of time making a sauce since there was none at the ready. How would fusilli work with aglio e olio …

As an aside, fusilli is quickly becoming one of my fvorite pasta shapes. The size is perfect for me, I love the texture of the pasta as it’s chewed, and the ridges do a pretty good job of holding most sauces. Good enough for this poor dirt farmer from NYC.

I broke out the new, deeper 12-inch skillet and added about 2½ quarts of filtered water and a big dollop of Diamond Crystal Salt. I grabbed the last of the DeCecco fusilli from its resting place alongside the microwave oven, where several other pastas are also stored.

While the water was heating, the sauce started to come together. Some Rancho Milagro EVOO went into a 10 inch skillet and, seeing some beautiful Italian anchovy fillets in the fridge I decided to add them to the aglio e olio, and when that decision was made, I decided to just riff a simple sauce leaving the aglio e olio as primarily a building block. I added enough anchovy to, hopefully, be just barely noticeable in the background, or at least that was the intention.

About three large cloves of pressed garlic were added to the anchovies cooking at a medium temp. The garlic sizzled a bit when it hit the oil so I immediately added a little less than ¼ cup of water from the container on the stove. There's always water handy to add to cooking garlic to reduce or eliminate its tendency to burn.

Next came the Aleppo pepper, two generous teaspoons of that lovely, flavorful pepper. That was cooked together with the garlic for a while, and the oil tasted for intensity and flavor. The garlic seemed to be fine, but a bit more Aleppo was required … not too much, though.

And then the riff continued. A couple of tablespoons of Mutti Triple Concentrated tomato paste was added and cooked to a brick red color with the oil and other ingredients. Tasting told me I was on to something, but more was needed, and I imagined a kind of funky pork flavor as being a good addition to this , and so I added just about 1½ tablespoons of ’nduja (https://ndujausa.com/). The whole thing came together nicely.

By the time the sauce was ready, the pasta was done. I pulled some pasta water from the skillet, drained the fusilli, and dumped it into the sauce, adding a bit less than ¼ cup of the starchy pasta liquid. When the stirring and mixing gave me the creaminess I wanted, I turned off the heat and removed the pan from the hob. It was time to add the cheese, a blend of Pecorino Romano and a lovely Grana Padano from a local, old school Italian deli.

Lunch was a delight.

Edited June 9 by Shel_B
Clarity and specifics, spelling (log)

Ddanno · June 8

5 hours ago, Smithy said:

I reheated the second half of yesterday's sandwich, using my A4 box to try to crisp it again on the outside. I also added pickle juice and a bit of horseradish sauce to give the sandwich the extra oomph that was missing yesterday.

It was better. The pickle juice especially helped, although it made the entire sandwich so gooey that it was easier to eat with a fork.

In addition to this having been the wrong bread for the sandwich, I think that the corned beef I cooked isn't very good. I'll post more about it in the corned beef topic. Even sealed as it's been, I think there was a deterioration in quality because I kept it refrigerated (not frozen) for so long.

What's an A4 box please? Google only wants to show me paper

**Smithy** · June 8

57 minutes ago, Shel_B said:

a big dollop of DCKC

It all sounds wonderful, and I wish you'd posted a photo! But this bit I can't suss out. What's DCKC short for?

**Smithy** · June 8

36 minutes ago, Ddanno said:

What's an A4 box please? Google only wants to show me paper

Sorry! It's a portable induction cooking box that, when first offered, afforded a lot of different inserts. Our dear departed Anna N, and others, enjoyed playing with it. I bought the basic box last year when it was on a very special sale. It appears that the sale was in order to eliminate inventory.

Here's the topic on the A4 Box Induction Cooker.

Ddanno · June 8

1 minute ago, Smithy said:

Sorry! It's a portable induction cooking box that, when first offered, afforded a lot of different inserts. Our dear departed Anna N, and others, enjoyed playing with it. I bought the basic box last year when it was on a very special sale. It appears that the sale was in order to eliminate inventory.

Here's the topic on the A4 Box Induction Cooker.

Thank you 😊

Shel_B · June 8

13 minutes ago, Smithy said:

It all sounds wonderful, and I wish you'd posted a photo! But this bit I can't suss out. What's DCKC short for?

Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt - screwed up that one ... I'll fix it.

I was going to post a pic, but my phone was in the car and the cameras were on their chargers, and the dish didn't look very interesting, just a pile of fusilli in red sauce. Also, I was more interested in sharing the experience of my thoughts and what I did than the final image.

Shel_B · June 9

1 hour ago, Smithy said:

Sorry! It's a portable induction cooking box that, when first offered, afforded a lot of different inserts. Our dear departed Anna N, and others, enjoyed playing with it. I bought the basic box last year when it was on a very special sale. It appears that the sale was in order to eliminate inventory.

Here's the topic on the A4 Box Induction Cooker.

Thanks for the info. I came across a mention of the box a while back and asked about it, but didn't see a response. I'll read the thread ...

C. sapidus · June 9

Zucchini and shrimp with a yogurt and chipotle sauce. Separately seared and removed shrimp and cubed zucchini. Sauteed onions to deglaze the pan, then added cumin seed, garlic, fish sauce, and minced chipotle in adobo. Mixed in yogurt to tame the heat, and finished with Mexican oregano. Kind of a Mexican yogurt curry. :rolleyes:

Edited June 9 by C. sapidus (log)

blue_dolphin · June 10

I believe this is the first tuna melt I’ve made. Zero expectations as I only had one before and it wasn’t good but this one was excellent. I was also hungry 😋

This is the Tuna Melt with Charred Jalapeño Pickles, Chives, and Provolone from Sunlight and Breadcrumbs by Renee Erickson and Sara Dickerman. It starts with making a batch of the Charred Then Pickled Jalapeno Peppers with Onion which are easy and good. In addition to the pickled jalapeños, the tuna mix includes fresh serrano chilies, capers, onion, chives and just enough mayo to stick it together. I used a mix of mozzarella and English coastal cheddar instead of Provolone. No complaints.
.

Shel_B · June 10

32 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

I believe this is the first tuna melt I’ve made. Zero expectations as I only had one before and it wasn’t good but this one was excellent. I was also hungry 😋
This is the Tuna Melt with Charred Jalapeño Pickles, Chives, and Provolone from Sunlight and Breadcrumbs by Renee Erickson and Sara Dickerman. It starts with making a batch of the Charred Then Pickled Jalapeno Peppers with Onion which are easy and good. In addition to the pickled jalapeños, the tuna mix includes fresh serrano chilies, capers, onion, chives and just enough mayo to stick it together. I used a mix of mozzarella and English coastal cheddar instead of Provolone. No complaints.
.

That sounds like an amazing tuna salad thing. Can you provide the recipe(s) or a link. I'd love to play around with it all.

blue_dolphin · June 10

41 minutes ago, Shel_B said:

That sounds like an amazing tuna salad thing. Can you provide the recipe(s) or a link. I'd love to play around with it all.

My post includes the names of the recipes as they appear in the book, its title and authors. Since I own the book, I haven’t searched for the recipes online but you might try via Google Books or just a basic search. If that comes up empty, post back and I can try to paraphrase them for you.

Shel_B · June 10

1 minute ago, blue_dolphin said:

My post includes the names of the recipes as they appear in the book, its title and authors. Since I own the book, I haven’t searched for the recipes online but you might try via Google Books or just a basic search. If that comes up empty, post back and I can try to paraphrase them for you.

I found a site that may offerwhat I'm looking for, and another couple of recipes that may be close (hard to say without seeing the original, although I'm looking for ideas as much as the recipe.

Never heard of Google Books, but I'll explore that as well. Thanks.

YvetteMT · June 11

Over my salad making slump. Maybe.

Romaine, red pepper, onion, pickle, turkey, radish, and pear gorgonzola dressing.

Steve Irby · June 13

A cooling sandwich for a hot day. Marinated artichoke hearts, confit tomato's, cucumber, sweet onion, mushrooms, kalamata olives, muenster cheese and a generous splash of coratina olive oil on a bagel.