Dinner! 2002

[GordonCooks]

Db Moderne Rip Off night

Stuffed Burgers !

I had some Maytag blue, some applewood smoked bacon, tasso ham, spinach, shitakes and porcinis, asst' oils, cheeses and the inspiring 1/2 terrine of foie gras mousse. Busted out the grill, ring molds, turkey fryer (for french fries and ORings)

Highlights

Tasso, Spinach, cream cheese

Maytag, bacon, shitake

Carmelized onion, foie gras

Spinach, scallop, cream cheese - not my choice, but good

Tasso, carmelized onion, shitake, foie gras

[Priscilla]

What a range! This is great. Steve Klc's professional-cooking-at-home AND Tommy's (freshly-ground) hamburger and a lot in between. Great run of meals.

Yesterday I was making plum preserves from some Santa Rosas a friend gave me, and, since people were coming over later, roasted two chickens, with which the plum preserves were good. Big Romaine salad with mustardy vinaigrette, red potatoes-garlic-chives-sour cream, smashed. Homemade rolls. Ate outside. Some people even needed sweaters!

[tommy]

i realized tonite that i had my camera set to about 1/5 the normal alreadly lame resolution. messin' up my food porn i'm tellin ya, the below included (and my kittens' pics as well ).

at any rate, a quick dinner tonite, prepared last night essentially.

thai pork chops

thai haricot vert

grilled corn on the cob from the farmers' market.

my "thai" pork is so silly. i feel like i'm cheating. a marinade of:

chopped cilantro

lots o garlic

lots o scallion

some oyster sauce

some hoison sauce

some soy

some fish sauce

lots o black pepper

brown sugar

it's wise to wipe off excess marinade before grilling, as it can be a bit salty if left marinating too long.

thai haricot vert:

blanch string beans

saute 1 tbs thai curry paste and sliced garlic in oil for a few minutes

add a bit of fish sauce

a splash of red wine or water to losen it all up

throw in beans to heat

this time i added some beautiful thai basil from the garden, and it worked nicely.

[Jinmyo]

Very nice, tommy. I am finding that pork chops (loin, bone in) are becoming more and more a favourite of mine.

[Toby]

Toby, what is smothered chicken? What is a walla walla onion?

Jinmyo, sorry for not answering sooner. We've started bringing tomatoes to the farmers' market and I was there all day and just got home.

Smothered chicken (or smothered pork chops) is American southern. You first brown the seasoned chicken (or pork) in some kind of fat. (I also added sliced smoked spicy venison sausage.) You can dredge the chicken in flour or breading or leave it plain. You then add a small amount of liquid (water, broth), cover the pan and cook at very low heat until the chicken is very tender, about to fall off bone. For this chicken, once the meat was tender, I took it out of the pan along with about half the juices and let the rest of the liquid cook down; then added very thin slices of a great big walla walla onion (which my nephew grows in Pennsylvania) and let that brown some and then returned the chicken and let it all cook together for a few minutes.

Blue Heron, thank you for supplying the walla walla information.

[tommy]

Very nice, tommy. I am finding that pork chops (loin, bone in) are becoming more and more a favourite of mine.

no bones.

[Jinmyo]

Very nice, tommy. I am finding that pork chops (loin, bone in) are becoming more and more a favourite of mine.

no bones.

Bones. Pick 'em up by the bone and bite right through the ring of fat. Try it and tell me I'm wrong.

[Jinmyo]

Toby, brown and then dredge? You have just blown my miiiind.

Seriously, that's interesting.

[Toby]

Toby, brown and then dredge? You have just blown my miiiind.

Seriously, that's interesting.

Oops.

[SobaAddict70]

Basic workout dinner: Broiled chicken breasts, steamed veggies, brown rice.

Rubbed the chicken breasts with some olive oil and a pinch of garam masala. With the steamed veggies, a dollop of avocado butter.

Orange sorbet. Pellegrino.

Avocado butter: Mash 1 RIPE avocado. Fold in 1 t. unsalted butter (optional). Use immediately or up to 2 days (refrigerate unused portion). Makes a great topping for steamed veggies. Without the butter, just add chopped tomatoes, onions, jalapeno peppers and minced cilantro for your basic guacamole.

[Wilfrid]

Slices of rice and pork kishka, cooked crips, on a big white plate dusted with paprika. Potato salad on the side. Very pretty.

[FoodMan]

S For a salad I made an english cucumber/red onion/mint salad

FM, what sort of cucumber do you call english?

Is it the fat one with lots of seeds and thin skin, or the small ones or maybe the long ones?

English cucumber is the long one with almost no seeds. I never use the fat one with lots of seed and waxy skin.

FM

[FoodMan]

Sunday dinner:

Chicken and smoked sausage Gumbo. Served with white rice and sourdough french bread for me and regular french baguete for my wife (she is not a big fan of sourdough)

FM

"Always add Tabasco"

[Orik]

Sunday was vietnamese day

shrimp summer rolls with nuoc cham, pork/peanut sauce and sriracha, some pickled carrots and daikon

grilled pork and rice powder balls

grilled lemongrass flank steak skewers

served with vermicelli and a herb plate

for dessert we had some hot, sweet, salty Thai guava

[SobaAddict70]

After two weeks of catered food, I'm back in the kitchen (yay for me). Time to flex those cooking muscles of mine...hehe.

Shrimp risotto -- prepped some aromatic veggies and made a simple court bouillon. Cooked the shrimp in the cb; strained the cb and reserved. Cleaned, shelled, deveined and chopped the shrimp. Sweated some onion and garlic in melted unsalted butter. Made the risotto the usual way, with a little saffron, using the reserved cb in place of stock. Towards the end, added the shrimp. Salt, pepper, chopped Italian parsley.

Green salad with ginger-honey viniagrette. Finished off the orange sorbet. Pellegrino.

SA

[helenas]

Beer-braised and slowly grilled/hickory smoked (for 30 minutes) fresh sausages - assortment of italian and bratwurst. The result was outstanding - i'm so happy we decided to go with charcoal grill.

[Wilfrid]

More on the braising, please, Helena. How long did you bathe the sausages in beer? Low temperature, I presume. Any other ingredients to flavor the beer?

Thanks as always.

[helenas]

Wilfrid, you're right - the sausages were barely simmered for 2 minutes on the bed of thinly-sliced onions. I used Boston Lager by Sam Adams.

On the subject of sausages: i'm almost ready to start making them at home from scratch.

[hfaze]

this has been a wonderful thread, and i'm so glad i found this board! after 25 years of watching cooking shows on TV i've actually decided to start cooking myself and this place has given me so many ideas!

i cooked dinner for my girlfriend sunday:

fettucine alfredo based off of a mario batali recipe: tossed cooked pasta with butter, chopped roasted garlic, romano, and asagio. topped with grilled chicken and fresh oregano. roasted roma tomatoes (EVOO, s&p). creme brule to finish.

[Jinmyo]

Scallion pancakes with garlic and chive puree dipping sauce.

Bibimbap (hot rice with vegetables). Gohan, served in heated stone bowls so that the rice crisps on the bottom and sides. Blanched, marinated, served cold to be put atop the rice: carrot threads, daikon threads, baby spinach, baby bok choy, diced jicama, red onion and red bell peppers done on the mandolin. Raw scallions slivered. Poached quail eggs. Shoyu braised pork belly served hot from iron pot. Kimchee. Pork crackling with much salt and fresh cracked white pepper. Each diner assembles their own mixture of hot and cold ingredients.

Cold cucumber and bean sprout soup with chile broth.

Daikon kimchee.

Stir-fried watercress with silken tofu cubes and gomasio (toasted sesame salt).

[polly]

jinmyo, your bibimbap sounds beautiful. i've only ever had it with hot veg, but the hot/cold contrast would be great.

[Jinmyo]

Thank you polly, this is actually quite traditional. And very nice for summer.

Oops. Forgot to mention grilled shitake, about the size of my hand from wrist to knuckles, sliced on a steep bias, grilled and dressed with chile-stepped seasme oil.

[Wilfrid]

"Bimibap" may be word of the day.

Keeping up with the fashions, I did some more very low temperature cooking. Salmon fillet, marinaded in crushed frsh peaches (smothered in the pulp and juice). I dropped about a tablespoon of water in a shall skillet and stirred in a tea spoon of honey, so the skillet just had a honey-flavoured slick to it - barely any standing liquid. Lowest possible temperature. I think it only took about five minutes each side for the salmon to colour, while remaining rare in the middle. Crunchy kosher salt. It ate like butter.

A sharpish cucumber salad to cut the richness (and some leftover potato salad with sour cream to fill the corners). Fat Bastard Chardonnay (a simple, chubby white from the Pays d'Oc).

[Jinmyo]

Wilfrid, bibimbap is fun to say as well as to cook or eat.

The salmon sounds lovely.

I've seen the Fat Bastard web site (fatbastard.com, of course) and it's quite interesting. You liked the wine?

[helenas]

Parboiled and butter-braised romano beans and yukon gold potatoes with a lot fresh clam strips with their juices added at the very end, garnished with parsley and chives.

Am i the only one who likes romano beans?

In her book "Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini" Elizabeth Schneider says that romano beans don't have much flavor; i strongly disagree. And BTW, i'm dissapointed in this book: i guess i don't understand the principle of covering some vegetables while leaving out the others.