Dinner 2025

[liamsaunt]

I made a batch of Ottolenghi's hummus from the Jerusalem cookbook, and topped it with grilled zucchini, summer squash, eggplant, peppers, and red onions.  Plus some added feta, tomatoes, cucumbers, and olives.  I also made some flatbread to soak up all the juices and extra hummus.  Everyone liked it.

 

 

Edited 20 hours ago by liamsaunt (log)

[liuzhou]

牛肉炒粉 (niú ròu chǎo fěn),  Beef Fried Rice Noodles.

 

 

 

 

[YvetteMT]

On 8/10/2025 at 7:28 AM, liamsaunt said:

Grilled lemon chicken over corn fricassee with sliced tomato from the farm near my house

 

@liamsaunt details on your corn fricassee? Looks delicious and might be right up my alley!

[Duvel]

Went out to a casual place in town, on the main street. We sat outside and enjoyed a pitcher of very vermouth-forward sangria while watching the people strolling by  …

 

 

 

We ordered a few items. Grilled squid with chickpeas & pigs head.

 

 

Artichokes with foie gras filling …

 

 

Sampler of six croquettes (blue cheese, clams, squid with ink, wild mushrooms, bacalau and spinach with raisins and pine nuts). One was eaten before I could take the picture. They were so good, we ordered another plate …

 

Little one wanted tuna tataki …

 

 

A canelon with braised duck filling and duck liver sauce. Very good …

 

 

Instead of ordering dessert, too, we went for a nice walk on the beach and the had ice cream at the plaza. Mine was dulche de leche & leche merengada. Both excellent 🤗

 

 

 

 

Edited 12 hours ago by Duvel (log)

[rotuts]

@Duvel

 

as usual , congratulations on you venue and selections .

 

I did see some garbanzos , w that squid .

 

pig head ?    

 

chopped up  gelled pigs head ?

[Norm Matthews]

Charlie frequently mentions a program that he enjoys about food history.  He has asked me to look at some of the shows and make some of the recipes.  I intend to do it but always forget.  But the other day he sent me an email containing a program about one of Napoleon's favorite dishes. Chicken  Marengo.  The program said it remained popular in French cuisine after his death.  We tried the recipe,  and he said it was really good and it reminded him of Chicken Adobo.  The sides we had with it, most probably, were not ever eaten with this meal in France..rice and corn. Thomas Jefferson tried to interest the French in corn when he was ambassador to France during George Washington's presidency and they were not interested in eating food meant for animals.

[liuzhou]

7 hours ago, Norm Matthews said:

... a program about one of Napoleon's favorite dishes. Chicken  Marengo.  The program said it remained popular in French cuisine after his death.

 

And still is. It was also one of late French mother's short list of favourites to cook and eat.  The dish was named in Honour of Napoleon after his victory in the Battle of Marengo, Italy.  

 

Rice is certainly eaten (and grown) in France and my mother and grandmother both served it with this dish. Corn is gaining acceptance but still not common.

 

 

Edited 2 hours ago by liuzhou (log)

[KennethT]

 

Lemongrass chicken with home grown lemongrass and chillies.

 

Cucumber salad 

[TicTac]

Not a huge pasta fan but this one hit hard…

 

 

carbonara base, sautéed local corn, orange garden tomato seen below, pancetta and some fish pepper. 
 

[liamsaunt]

9 hours ago, YvetteMT said:

@liamsaunt details on your corn fricassee? Looks delicious and might be right up my alley!

I had a lot of corn to use up, so I blended some of it in a vitamix with salt and pepper and a splash of milk, then strained it. Then I just cooked some sliced shallots in butter until soft, added in the corn liquid until it was warm, then stirred in some corn kernels, a handful of Parmesan and a handful of shredded basil. Season to taste. Pretty simple. 

[C. sapidus]

Grill eggplant over charcoal:

 

 

Grilled eggplant salad (yam makreua yao) from Thai Food: Cool and peel eggplant, then mix with mint leaves, sliced shallot, chopped scallion, lime juice, chile powder, and fish sauce. Serve topped with ground dried shrimp and steamed eggs.

 

Temporary bachelor meal because Mrs. C is out of town and does not like the texture of mushy eggplant.

 

[YvetteMT]

51 minutes ago, liamsaunt said:

I had a lot of corn to use up, so I blended some of it in a vitamix with salt and pepper and a splash of milk, then strained it. Then I just cooked some sliced shallots in butter until soft, added in the corn liquid until it was warm, then stirred in some corn kernels, a handful of Parmesan and a handful of shredded basil. Season to taste. Pretty simple. 

Thank you!  That sounds fantastic.

[Shel_B]

Something very simple for the evening meal tonight: Almond cashew milk sweetened with one plump Medjool date. I don't have a clue about the staining shown in the image. The bottle was perfectly clean before adding the nut milk, and the milk doesn't show any discoloration in the drinking glass, nor does it have an off or odd taste <shrug>

 

 

This was an experiment as I was running low on almonds and didn't want to open a fresh package. I had an opened bag of cashews left over from a recent chicken tikka masala dish, so I added them to the mix and ended up with a 2/3 - 1/3 mix of almonds and cashews. Soaked those puppies about 10 hours with one complete change of water, threw a quart of 34-degree filtered water into the blender, added that plump date and a three-finger pinch of Diamond Crystal. Whirred it around, filtered it, and crossed my fingers for the best. The result was quite good ... I had no expectations, just a hope that the mixture would work out, and it did.

 

Going forward, considering the price of the almonds and the deal I can get on cashews, I may just make this blend more often. Not long ago, I found a local source for fresh, refrigerated coconut chunks, so almond-coconut milk will go into the rotation along with the more usual straight almond milk.

Edited 4 hours ago by Shel_B
Spelling (log)

[Honkman]

Spaghetti with Bean Sauce and Coffee from a recipe in essen & trinken - great recipe which really shows why we like essen & trinken so much. The ingredients might not sound like they would work together but in the end everything flows together - Saltiness from the pancetta, earthy from lima beans, coffee for some bitterness, some spiciness from black pepper, pears for some sweetness and pecorino to bring it all together with its umami.

You saute some pancetta, onion, garlic and lima beans, cook it a few minutes with vegetable broth and puree it. In parallel, you caramelized a little bit of sugar, dissolve it in pear juice and cook diced pears and some butter until you can mash it into pear sauce. You grind coffee beans and black pepper corns to a medium grind. Once you have cooked the spaghetti you use some pasta water, pecorino and the coffee-pepper grind to build an emulsion, add the spaghetti, bean puree and some pear sauce. Serve topped with a little bit more pear sauce and additional pecorino