Lunch! (2003-2012)

[nonblonde007]

Everything looks so yummy!

Squid. Insane how good this was, especially in the hot butter w/capers.

[doctortim]

Grilled tomato & cheese roll, with salad.

[prasantrin]

Couldn't decide whether I should post this here or in the Gallery of Regrets, but it was my lunch, after all! A bit blurry, but it tasted better than it looked.

Mapodoufunasu

I wanted to add a bit more in terms of nutrition, so I added eggplant in addition to the tofu. And of course, I used hzrt8w's recipe, minus the brown bean sauce plus fermented black beans thrown in at the end.

[doctortim]

Spaghetti bolognese (I've decided to practise my photography skills, hence the prolific posting lately)

[prasantrin]

I had the same mabodoufunasu that I had yesterday, but this time I had the brilliant idea of adding an onsen tamago!

It was awesome! I wish the egg had been a little runnier, but what can you expect from store-bought onsen tamago?

[kbjesq]

It was awesome!  I wish the egg had been a little runnier, but what can you expect from store-bought onsen tamago?

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Rona, that looks scrumptious to me. I'd never have thought to top it with an egg. I made the hzrt8w mapo tofu a couple of weeks ago, but I used ground turkey instead of pork (sacrilege, I'm sure, but it still tasted great). Next time, I am going to try your technique and top it with a poached egg.

[doctortim]

Chicken pad thai. What I love about this (and many other noodle dishes) is how after some very basic prep, the whole thing comes together in minutes in a hot wok.

[prasantrin]

Rona, that looks scrumptious to me.  I'd never have thought to top it with an egg.  I made the hzrt8w mapo tofu a couple of weeks ago, but I used ground turkey instead of pork (sacrilege, I'm sure, but it still tasted great).  Next time, I am going to try your technique and top it with a poached egg.

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I really liked it, and I had the same thing for lunch today! The egg cut the heat of the mabodoufunasu beautifully (I accidentally used too much chile).

I'd love to try it with ground turkey, or even ground chicken, but ground turkey is definitely unavailable, and ground chicken is much too expensive. Maybe I'll have to try mincing my own in the food processor!

[Ce'nedra]

prasantrin: That egg is HEAVEN! Just the way I like it yum...

doctortim: Your spag bol looks heavenly too! One of the few dishes I do well is my spaghetti and meatballs but sometimes it's so time-consuming

So minced meat can often be an equally delicious but much more TIME-SAVING alternative. How'd you make yours?

And I'm so jealous of your pad thai! I've tried making it a couple of times before and each time, it turned out like mash

[doctortim]

doctortim: Your spag bol looks heavenly too! One of the few dishes I do well is my spaghetti and meatballs but sometimes it's so time-consuming

So minced meat can often be an equally delicious but much more TIME-SAVING alternative. How'd you make yours?

And I'm so jealous of your pad thai! I've tried making it a couple of times before and each time, it turned out like mash 

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Thanks! I make my bolognese in bulk, with onion, a few anchovies, carrot, celery, a bay leaf, meat (minced or chunks, sometimes both), a tiny bit of milk, some canned tomatoes (but not heaps), and a little chicken stock, in roughly that order cooking each properly as I go (as opposed to all together). Then I reduce it quite a lot, and freeze it. When I'm in the mood for bolognese I sauté some tomatoes in a pan with oil, add some defrosted bolognese until it's all mixed through and hot, then toss with the pasta. It freezes well so you can have a great meal really quickly.

The thai cooking threads on this site have helped me a lot, particularly the pad thai cook-off. The key to perfectly cooked noodles seems to be to make sure they're pliable but not 100% cooked when they hit the wok. Add them to the wok with your liquids plus a little bit of water and that'll finish them off in less than a minute. Have the sauce mixed together already so you don't waste time fussing around with different jars and bottles while your noddles die in the pan.

[Ce'nedra]

Thank you doctortim -I shall try your method with my spag bol next time. Sounds delicious and is very different from the way I'm used to.

Btw, hihi you're from Australia too woohoo!

And btw, this:

waste time fussing around with different jars and bottles while your noddles die in the pan.

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seems to perfectly describe the way I cook my pad thai

Yep, I've been trying to read through the Thai threads but there's just so much to go through aiyayayay!

[Domestic Goddess]

Autumn air is definitely here and so chilly. I decided it was a great time to fix Sinigang na Baboy (Pork in Tamarind Soup).

I added tiny eggplants, peeled taro roots, water spinach leaves, tomatoes and onion. My pot simmering away on my stove.

Plated on our korean knee-high table (yes, we sit on the floor when we eat). That's our house bunny on the lower left, curious on what's what on the table.

Close-up of my bowl, yes that is a piece of fatty pork. Hmmm, pork... (I'm beginning to sound like Homer).

[insomniac]

Autumn air is definitely here and so chilly. I decided it was a great time to fix Sinigang na Baboy (Pork in Tamarind Soup).

I added tiny eggplants, peeled taro roots, water spinach leaves, tomatoes and onion. My pot simmering away on my stove.

Plated on our korean knee-high table (yes, we sit on the floor when we eat). That's our house bunny on the lower left, curious on what's what on the table.

Close-up of my bowl, yes that is a piece of fatty pork. Hmmm, pork... (I'm beginning to sound like Homer).

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ha Doddie I made sinigang beef last night, pretty well the same recipe but I had some beef bones sitting there looking at me, just the weather for it.........

ps. love that pork fat

[Ce'nedra]

Domestic Goddess: I've never had Sinigang before (in fact, I've never eaten Filipino food in my life though I'm really keen to) but I know just by looking at your meal that it's very nourishing and 'yum yum in my tum'

It reminds me alot of a Vietnamese sour fish soup that also makes use of tamarind. I have a feeling there must be some similarities in the flavours.

Anyway, the Vietnamese version that I know of is really delicious! You eat it with rice as well

Edit: Looked it up and the Vietnamese one is spelt 'Canh chua'. It's great!

Edited October 1, 2007 by Ce'nedra (log)

[jumanggy]

Doddie: I had sinigang for lunch too, today! (of course, the chances of two separate Filipinos both eating sinigang are quite high...) I'm not sure I can have all my meals sitting on the floor. My legs die quite quickly (or maybe I'm just not in the right position).

Dr. Tim: WOW on the BLT. There's something so comforting about your picture of Bolognese...

Rona: does your mabo have minced pork in it? egg: check rice: check meat (or tofu, heh): check spicy sauce: check. Sounds like a perfect meal to me!

[Dave Hatfield]

Wild Mushrooms! Picked them from a nearby field.

Butter, garlic, fresh bread and some cheese not to mention a bit of wine.

Great lunch. For a complete pictorial description go to my blog. Link below to French Food Focus.

[prasantrin]

Cornballs on a bed of rice.

Tasted much better than it looked!

[kaneel]

What is cornball?That actually looks good to me:)I love corn do you have a recipe?

[prasantrin]

What is cornball?That actually looks good to me:)I love corn do you have a recipe?

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It's a Thai thing. My dad used to make it all the time, but I've never actually seen it anywhere else. My dad's version (which is pretty much my version) is just ground pork, garlic, black pepper, fish sauce, corn (freshly cut from a cob is best), and some cornstarch to help bind it. If you can, pound the garlic and pepper with a mortar and pestle, all the better. There should also be cilantro root in there (pound together with the garlic and pepper), but we couldn't always find cilantro roots, so we would just leave them out. Mix everything up, form into balls (I made mine into little patties to make for easier frying).

Then you fry them. Be careful when you fry them, though, because those corn kernels pop, and they can really sting when a hot one lands on your bare skin. Because of that, I started to chop my corn a bit before adding it to the ground pork to help release some of its moisture.

The Thai version I usually see is only made of corn, but I don't know how to make those. I imagine they're made similarly to the ones I make, but without the ground pork.

Here's a link to the corn version. I can't vouch for the recipe, but you can get an idea of what's in it. If you do make this version, definitely use corn kernels that are freshly cut from the cob. It will make a big difference.

Edited October 17, 2007 by prasantrin (log)

[nonblonde007]

Doddie, again.........WOW! That looks so good.

Dave, those mushrooms, yum.

Pita sand with hummus, turkey, and about a million other things. I got a little carried away and ended up eating most of it with a fork. Looks like a train-wreck, but tasted so good.

Edited October 21, 2007 by nonblonde007 (log)

[Kim Shook]

I want a cornball. (I could never imagine, prior to eGullet, ever making that statement ).

Lunch today was a Sunday football feast. Boring and frustrating games (Redskin fan, 'nuff said ). Pot stickers and egg rolls and what our house calls 'chippydip' (say it out loud ) and some fun Asian goodies I found at the Asian market this morning while I was looking for Potsticker sauce.

Meltykiss from Japan - these were little cubes of melt-in-your-mouth chocolate that were covered in cocoa. Pretty good - kind of like an 'Ice Cube' when it began to melt (for those of you who know what an 'Ice Cube' is). The other is Barquiron (w/ cashew nuts) from the Philippines. Little tube shaped things with a crispy, wafery outer shell. Inside is almost powdery and crumbles in a second. Odd thing was that the first one that we opened was crushed and the second one whole and they tasted different from one another. Hmmm. I tried to take a picture of each one of the goodies, but just got a boxy shaped brown blur and a tube shaped tan blur !

Kim

[GTO]

Kim - You got Meltykiss! I've wanted to try those for ages!

I used some local Lincolnshire Poacher today, in a totally improvised Pumpkin noodle soup.

[eskay]

GTO: Beautiful photo! But what's a Lincolnshire Poacher? Is that a variety of pumpkin or something?

Like magic, leftover curry beef becomes dumpling filling for soup! Using up leftovers always makes me happy

[GTO]

Kate - Thanks, and those dumplings look so comforting.

Poacher is a Cheddar-style cheese made here in Lincolnshire. Imagine a really smooth, creamy, full smelling cheddar and you're getting there. You can get it smoked or unsmoked.

Lincolnshire Poacher

[GTO]

Who'd have thought that curdling milk could feel so good? I made Ricotta to go with Lunch today. More on my Blog if you're interested.