Dinner! 2002

[Priscilla]

Throwback steak au poivre, with nice little Angus filets languishing at the market until I gave them a home. Garlic mashed White Rose potatoes. Skinny asparagus, roasted with Lurpak and s & p, very intense flavor. Cream of tomato soup to start, made from more of the last of the garden Romas, cream of tomato being one of the best soups ever. Baguette from the Vietnamese French bakery.

[Wilfrid]

Give me more. Did you make an au poivre sauce? Cognac, cream, peppercorns? Or did you just hammer the corns into the steak? Or both?

[Priscilla]

The answer is yes.

The whole shebang.

Excepting I just used my peppermill set on stun to heavily coat everybody and then pressed, pressed pressed pressed, to aid adhesion and then set aside. (Also salted, they were.)

V. hot pan, tiny bit of oil, sear, sear sear sear, both sides, bung steaks into the oven whilst pan deglazed with brandy (which is what I had; although I was wishing for sour mash bourbon at the time--v.g. for this) which provided only the teeniest poxiest moment of alflamity before petering out but no matter, and then I added a couple T. of the red wine I had to hand because it looked like I wanted to have a little more deglazement action, and then, (when ready to serve), v. hot pan, heavy cream, reduce, reduce reduce reduce, taste/season/re-season, and so. (Accumulated steak juices incorporated.)

Izzat a recognizable au poivre to you?

[Sandra Levine]

Hairdresser kept talking about marlin fishing. Said marlin was the best eating fish. Never had it. Today, there it was in Garden of Eden. Bought some. Tonight's dinner:

Marlin, brushed with melted butter, soy sauce, lemon juice and garlic

Grilled tomato, garlic and parsley

Potato cake, a la L'Ami Louis

Watercress, grapefruit and red onion salad

Bananas macerated in lemon juice and sugar, with the last of the Petite Suisse

Hairdresser may be right. Marlin is something like swordfish, something like shark, something like mahi-mahi, but better than any of them.

[rslux]

We found Roma tomatos for 29 cents a pound today.

A very big pot of marinara rustica is almost done.

[Adam Balic]

Dinner - One Muffin and two glasses of Ouzo. New health kick I am on.

[Miss J]

Steak.

Okay, sirloin steak seared in a hot pan and finished in the oven, then sprinkled with sel gris marin and served with a drizzle of the red wine I used to deglaze the pan. Eaten with large green salad lightly dressed with oil and lemon, and a large glass of red wine.

[Wilfrid]

v. hot pan, heavy cream, reduce, reduce reduce reduce, taste/season/re-season, and so

Very pleased to see the heavy cream come into play there. Nothing like it for finishing a pan sauce. Sounds excellent. One of the quickest ways I know to make a supper dish which tastes like it was made in a restaurant is take any type of thin escalope of meat, season and sear, set aside to rest, the pan juices deglazed with something alcoholic, heavy cream, reduce, reduce, reduce and sprinkle on some chopped herbs or pink peppercorns or something for decoration. About ten minutes, and this is the kind of thing Italian restaurants have been charging $20 a plate for for years.

[Jinmyo]

One of my favourite simple things:

Nice trout fillet, very very dry, skin squeegeed and salted, seared in grapeseed oil. Flipped flesh side down for twenty seconds then back onto the skin. Dash of sake in the pan then cover for a minute. Served atop gohan (Japanese white rice) with much gomasio. Toasted squares of nori. Miso shiru.

The fat in the trout is so perfect. Why don't they make troutbutter?

[Miss J]

Nice trout fillet, very very dry, skin squeegeed

Um...I feel a bit silly asking, but how do you squeegee a trout skin? (I'm imagining cleaning it at a set of stoplights when it can't get away.)

The fat in the trout is so perfect. Why don't they make troutbutter?

And a new sig is born...

[Jinmyo]

Miss J, a truc from T Keller: use the back of the knife blade and run it across the skin to remove excess water.

[Gavin Jones]

Friday had dinner with Markman & others.

Actually almost no cooking and basically fat for every course.

Starter: shrimp flavoured butter

Main: Pork fat

Cheese: Cheesefat

Pudding: Jersey cream (with lemon tart flavouring).

It was pathetic on the cooking front. At borough market bought a load of potted shrimp (this was nostalgic as used to make it for student parties - peeling shrimps how entertaining).

Grilled poilane and then melted the mace-rich buttery shrimps onto it.

(smoked eel fillet which was a bargain on the side).

Some NZ SB (Neudorf) - gooseberry juice)

The pork belly - poured boiling water over to open up the slits in the skin.

Slow roast - loads of salt, threw some chicory into the roasting pan.

After 2.5 hours take pork out slice top layer off (fat and skin) put in high heat to crackle. (sage leaves in between top layer of fat and meaty part).

Present: slice of belly on top of caramelized chicory with crackling sitting at an angle.

Some Dolcetto & Roda II Rioja '95 - Rioja unexciting.

Cheese: creepy camembert (unpasteurized), Crozier blue, some hard ewe's milk cheese (the easy cheese as opposed to the 2 cheesy cheeses).

Pudding: were lazy bought lemon tart and lovely jersey double cream.

Quarts de Chaume '81 lovely acidic zip to offset the creamy cheese & creamy cream. Good Chenin Blanc.

Coffee & grappa. This was the mistake I feel.

Having become drunk & boring I had to go home but managed to take a 'circuitous' route. Oh well - an interesting 3 hour trip across london.

[Liza]

I applaud the Crozier Blue, as I prefer it to Cashel, but any blue will do in a pinch.

Tonight: lamb shoulder ragu with gnocchi. I should get to do the fork-flicking part.

[Malawry]

Last night:

Homemade egg rolls

Soup made with fish stock, seaweed, shiitakes and miso served with quail egg, scallions and enoki in the bottom of the bowl

Americanized pad thai

Stir-fried gingered veggies: asparagus, baby bok choy, red bell pepper, more shiitake

And for dessert? Pocky for Men.

[Jinmyo]

Sa ho thick rice noodles with dried shrimp and scallops in a chile broth with watercress and peanuts.

Roast pork belly chopped and mixed with scallions and mint served on large won ton wrapper crisps.

Fresh deep-fried fish cake made with pollack and lobster meat, sliced and topped with wakame paste (reconstitute in dashi and clam juice, process, squeeze) and gomasio.

Assortment of pickles: mustard greens (with mustard), kimchee, bamboo shoots with chile, mushroom slivers with sesame oil.

[Adam Balic]

Lucky enough to get three kilos of live squat-lobster (squatties) on the weekend. I saw them at a farmers market (they are not fished commercially), when I asked the chap "how much?", he said that as he was tired and wanted to go home I could have the whole lot for four quid!

Never have I made a better purchase. Boiled in salted water and served on a large platter with lemon wedges and melted butter offered they were fantastic. So sweet. They look like alien beasts so it was fun to watch my guests put the first crumb into their mouths with a look of utter fear, which quickly turned into surprise and delight. It took about fifteen minutes for six people to consume three kilos of the little chaps.

After this I offered up lobster (conventional type) pasta made from local Scottish lobster caught off the Ise of Skye. The lobster was good, but no where near as good as the squatties.

[Charles Smith]

Got a mixed bunch of heirloom "plum" tomatoes at the Greenmarket- some Amish paste and some sicilian variety, the name of which I forget. browned four chicken legs in evoo with s&p, sliced the tomatoes and blended them corasely, scraped the chicken pot, with white wine, added the tomatoes to the pot, added back the chicken, threw in a bunch of fresh herbs, simmered for 3.5 hrs, until all of the chicken had fallen off the bone- seasoned again with s&p plus a new batch of herbs.

delicious on some farfalle.

[SobaAddict70]

Went to Fire Island this weekend....and it was a lesson in what to do with a limited supply of resources.

For those of you who don't know about FI, its a little barrier island near the south shore of Long Island that's accessible only by ferry, and around this time of year...a limited amount of transport times. Most ppl bring in supplies from the mainland, as the stores have limited stock. The general store in the Pines has a more varied selection than the one in Cherry Grove, but that's not saying much. If ever there was a poster child for tomatoes with cracks and blemishes, the market at Cherry Grove takes the cake. That's ok. My housemate had a vegetable and herb garden that we used for much of the weekend. Tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini, and an assortment of herbs: Italian parsley, rosemary, sage, cilantro, chervil and summer savory.

Friday:

Fettucine with fresh pesto -- garlic pounded to a paste in a mortar, w/ sea salt. I decided to use a food processor for the sauce, since it was 9 pm and I didn't feel like spending 30 min. pounding away the basil. Lemon, Thai and regular basil from the garden. EVOO, Parm-Reg., pine nuts. With the pasta and sauce, a simple salad of mache and just-picked tomatoes with an oil/vinegar dressing. Poland Spring water. Lemon and ginger tea.

Saturday:

Stuffed omelettes for breakfast: chopped onions, tomatoes, EVOO, sea salt, pepper, and a T. of medium-hot salsa. Cooked down the sauce until it reduced by half. Served the omelettes with toast. Coffee, tea.

Grilled tuna with yellow pepper, potato and onion sauce. Pasta with a seafood marinara sauce. (The sauce: tomatoes, onions, herbs, shrimp, striped bass, salt and pepper.) Salad of Boston lettuce, red onion and tomatoes; dressing of EVOO, pumpkinseed oil, distilled vinegar, mustard, sea salt and pepper. White wine for everyone but me. Water for me.

Sunday:

French toast for breakfast. Strawberry-rhubarb jam/clover honey as toppings.

Leftover tuna and pasta for lunch.

Spaghetti with EVOO, Italian tuna, chopped parsley and mint, sauteed garlic, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Evian. Pineapple and orange sorbet.

SA

PS to Toby et al.: Having experienced just-picked tomatoes, the supermarket variety is an incredible letdown!!!! Ah...I think I'm spoiled now.

edit: added mention of Saturday breakfast and note.

[Jinmyo]

Nice to have you back, Soba.

Nice meals.

Pork gyozas with red wine vinegar.

Barley cooked with porcini liquer and sliced porcini, dressed with a touch of porcini oil and fresh rosemary.

Racks of lamb, pan roasted, very rare and very seared, with a Dijon sauce made from the jus and some Soave.

Salad of edamame and mint with microgreens.

[FoodMan]

Last night it was homemade stuffed fried "Kibbe" (lebanese bulgur and ground meat "pastry" stuffed with ground meat, pine nuts, onions, and spices). I served it with a yogurt/cucumber/mint sauce and a nice salad. It has been so long since I had this dish homemade mainly because of the skill involved in forming the "kibbe". Mine came out delicious yet a little thicker than I would like them and the first few looked kind of funny (they are supposed to look sort of like torpedoes not misshapen thumbs). Once I got the hang of it it was a lot easier and the last ten or so came out looking perfect although still thicker than they should be. Hopefully next time I will get them as thin as I would like. All in all a very satisfying and tasty meal with leftovers for tonight.

FM

[Miss J]

Made anglicised char siu last night, and cut it into thin slices which I piled on top of rice noodles and steamed pak choi in a bowl and topped with spicy Thai pork stock. Topped with spring onions, minced chile, chopped coriander and a little fish sauce. Ate on the sofa whilst watching a very bad (but gratifyingly glossy) TV drama.

Bloke was out.

[Sandra Levine]

Salad of quartered mixed, heirloom tomatoes, mozzarella di bufalo, and basil

Seared scallops (beurre d'Isigny)

Roasted cauliflower

[Wilfrid]

Halibut steak from Wild Edibles at Grand Central (on a Monday, I know ), gently poached in fish stock with snips of tarragon. Green beans.

Baked figs to follow. Inexpensive Trimbach Riseling.

Oh yes, a scoop of sauerfleisch and a pickle served as an amuse guele while I toyed with my Campari and Ting.

[helenas]

after all discussions on favorite pasta shapes i tried ziti from wegmans(those are

short and fat), and it was perfect in baked ziti with spinach, feta, cream and seared shrimp.

[Priscilla]

For some reason it was 100 degrees yesterday. Maybe something to with Isidore down Mexico way. My neighbor had just returned from up north, passed through Castroville, Artichoke Capital of the World, and brought me three beautiful specimens. It's always nice to get them straight from the field.

Dinner was an attempt at enervation abatement. The aforementioned artichoke, steamed, served with mayonnaise. Caprese salad with VERY ripe Brandywine slices, whole-milk mozzarella and basil I was able to glean from an experimental late-season basil planting, and olive oil from the guy at the farmer's market. Jambon au beurre on a nice baguette from the Vietnamese French baker, Lurpak the beurre in question. A Barbera D'Asti that suited the food but no more.