Dinner! 2002

[Jinmyo]

Shiro miso-shiru (white miso soup) with lemon zest; toro sashimi; warm enoki mushroom set in cool "cappuccino" (gelatine-set coffee dashi); crispy smelt with gomasio; daikon thread salad with a fig vinaigrette; chicken liver pate on large basil leaves; soba-zushi (buckwheat noodles rolled in nori) with shoyu-wasabi dipping sauce; gohan (Japanese white rice).

[Jinmyo]

w/fresh pico

coolranch, what is "pico"? Iyer?

[SobaAddict70]

Soba Addict, how'd you make the salt and pepper squid?

Toby, it was salt and pepper SHRIMP. (You can make it with squid though, but imho, it doesn't taste as good)

1 pound medium shrimp, unshelled

3/4 t. salt

1 1/2 t. Shao Hsing rice cooking wine

2 T. cornstarch, arrowroot OR water chestnut powder

Peanut oil

Finely minced garlic (how much is up to you)

Finely minced ginger (ditto)

Pinch of crushed red pepper flakes or small pinch of freshly cracked black pepper

1 scallion, finely minced

1. Using kitchen shears, cut through the shrimp shells two-thirds of the length down the back of the shrimp. Remove the legs and devein the shrimp, leaving the shells and tails on. Pull off the sharp spine that is about 1/2 –inch long between the soft tail fins. Rinse the shrimp under cold water and set on several thicknesses of paper towels. With more paper towels, pat the shrimp dry. Because the shrimp are deep-fried, they must be bone-dry before cooking.

2. Place the shrimp in a medium bowl, sprinkle with about 1/2 t. salt and the rice wine, and toss to combine. Set aside for about 10 minutes. Do not allow shrimp to sit for more than 10 minutes or the texture of the shrimp will be mushy. Sprinkle the shrimp with cornstarch and toss until well combined.

3. In a wok, heat oil over medium–high heat. Carefully add the shrimp and cook 45 seconds to 1 minute, or just until shrimp turn bright orange. Carefully remove shrimp with a slotted spoon to a platter lined with several thicknesses of paper towels. Remove oil from heat and set aside to cool.

4. Heat a wok (preferably the same one used in step 3) over high heat until hot but not smoking. Carefully add about 1 T. of the reserved hot oil to the wok along with the garlic and ginger, and stir-fry 20 to 30 seconds, or just until mixture begins to brown. Add the shrimp, remaining 1/4 t. salt, and the crushed red pepper flakes (or pepper), and stir-fry 1 minute, or until combined and shrimp are just cooked through. Stir in the scallion and serve immediately.

Serves 4.

Let me know how it turns out.

SA

[Toby]

Thanks for the recipe, Soba. I thought I'd typed "shrimp," but I'm so obsessed with re-creating the salt and pepper squid served at Yuet Lee in San Francisco Chinatown, which is unbelievably good, I unconsciously typed "squid." They cook the squid so the coating is really dark and crispy; it's completely addictive, you just want to go on eating it forever.

[chiffonade]

Having just moved, cooking has been a challenge. We've unpacked enough boxes to make the house liveable. Pasta is always a good bet and we've been enjoying salads as well.

Last night's dinner was as follows:

Castellane (this HUGE pasta put out by Barilla).

with tomato sauce that had pieces of the night before's baked chicken cut up into it.

Salad with vinaigrette (made fresh every night).

[sng sling]

Shiro miso-shiru (white miso soup) with lemon zest; toro sashimi; warm enoki mushroom set in cool "cappuccino" (gelatine-set coffee dashi); crispy smelt with gomasio; daikon thread salad with a fig vinaigrette; chicken liver pate on large basil leaves; soba-zushi (buckwheat noodles rolled in nori) with shoyu-wasabi dipping sauce; gohan (Japanese white rice).

Jinmyo-san, can you please explain the warm enoki w/ gelled coffee dashi??? Oishii-so!

[Rhea_S]

... with homemade quince rataifa.

Please excuse my ignorance but what's quince rataifa? Actually, I know what quince is but curious about the rataifa. I'm thinking of a filo-related dessert, but I couldn't find anything online to verify.

[Toby]

... with homemade quince rataifa.

Please excuse my ignorance but what's quince rataifa? Actually, I know what quince is but curious about the rataifa. I'm thinking of a filo-related dessert, but I couldn't find anything online to verify.

Amazing how many brain lapses I made in one post (I have a bad hangover) -- should be quince ratafia -- grated up quince steeped in alcohol (in this case, cognac) with sugar added. Very delicious, hard to stop drinking once started.

[Jinmyo]

Jinmyo-san, can you please explain the warm enoki w/ gelled coffee dashi???  Oishii-so!

Domo arigato gozaimasu. Watashi wa Nihongo o sukoshi hana-shimasu and do many classical/sem-i-classical Japanese dishes but I'm not Nihonjin.

Not much to explain as it's mainly a matter of timing. Some enoki poach gently in dashi and then are put into the cool coffee-dashi (1 part Nigerian roast to 4 parts dashi, gelatin sheets) in small bowls; the bowls go into the freezer while more enoki are poached; the bowls are removed and the hot enoki melt the still setting coffee-dashi; bowls returned to freezer for a few minutes; enoki are now warm instead of hot, coffee-dashi has set around the stems.

[Toby]

Risotto with baby summer squash and squash blossoms; seared tuna; mesclun; sliced up eva purple ball and aunt ruby's german green tomatoes; wilted amaranth; ambrosia melon and blueberries.

[SobaAddict70]

Yesterday I took off and shanghaied my best friend's apartment for prep, for a pre-wedding dinner party I gave for him and his fiance and five other people. He has way more space than I do, not to mention he has a REAL kitchen (one with adequate counterspace).

Three of the guests were vegetarians (they eat eggs and dairy thankfully), and the groom is allergic to cilantro and eggplant, and has a STRONG dislike to nuts in general. I had done some initial prep last weekend by making a quart of roasted vegetable stock and a similar amount of chicken stock. Shopping was done around early morning (I prefer to get most of the ingredients (excepting staples like EVOO) for dinner, the day of the dinner, both for freshness and flavor quality).

Apps: Porcini tagliatelle with uncooked tomato sauce (for the veggies); sweet and spicy pear and cashew salad. The salad would've been perfect for everyone except for the dried shrimp in the base, and the nam pla in the dressing.

Made the pasta early on: to semolina flour and eggs, added some chopped reconstituted porcini, and some of the soaking liquid. Made the tagliatelle using their pasta machine. Uncooked tomato sauce: chopped grape tomatoes, chopped plum tomatoes, EVOO, salt and pepper. Refrigerated everything separately for assembly right before dinner. At serving, cooked the pasta, tossed with the tomato sauce. Chiffonade of basil. Drizzle of EVOO.

Salad went much the same way: dried shrimp, pears, halved cherry tomatoes, toasted cashew nuts. Dressing -- lime juice, nam pla, brown sugar, minced garlic, serrano chiles. At serving, tossed the salad with the dressing and plated everything.

Second course: roasted pepper, onion and black bean soup. I normally make this soup with tomatoes but didn't want to overwhelm everyone with an attack of the killer tomatoes. [g]

Avocado butter: Mashed 2 ripe avocadoes, folded in a little unsalted butter and a tiny amount of chopped chipotle chiiles en adobo. Creamed together and let chill for a few hours.

Roasted yellow, orange and red peppers, onions, garlic, and carrots in some OO. Combined the roasted veggies with some black beans and the roasted veggie stock. Pureed in a food processor; returned to pot. Made a second batch with the chicken stock. At serving, topped each bowl with finely diced roasted carrots and a dollop of avocado butter.

Mains: cod with mushroom-herb crust and tomato jam; spiced lentils with apple crisps and curried yogurt (Recipe from "Grains, Rice and Beans" by Kevin Graham; Artisan, 1995) (this was for the vegetarians); carrots with cumin; simple rice pilaf with saffron (cooked with the last of the chicken stock).

Made the tomato jam early on: 1 lb. plum tomatoes, peeled, seeded and coarsely chopped; EVOO and a small pinch of sugar. Cooked for about half an hour, until the tomatoes thickened considerably.

The cod: sauteed mushrooms and shallots in unsalted butter until mushroom liquid evaporated; folded mushroom mixture into another mixture of creamed butter, egg, parsley, thyme, salt, pepper and breadcrumbs. Garlic, shallots and more thyme in a baking dish. Added clam juice (would have made fish fumet in advance but didn't feel like it), then cod fillets. Breadcrumb mixture over fish. Sent the cod to the fridge until later.

Carrots: crushed some cumin and fennel seeds and some cloves. Heated OO, added crushed spices, carrot slices, orange juice, grated orange peel, minced garlic and ground coriander. Cooked until carrots were crisp-tender and sauce thickened somewhat. Salt and pepper to taste.

Lentils: sauteed onions, added garam masala (see Note 1), bay leaf and Granny Smith apples. Added lentils and roasted vegetable stock. Removed bay leaf once lentils were done.

Apple crisps (these were done after the tomato jam): sliced apples, lemon juice mixed with confectioner's sugar. Glazed the apples with the lemon-sugar mixture, dried the apples in a preheated oven (200 degrees) for five hours.

Yogurt: garam masala (see Note 2), diced baby bananas and plain yogurt.

Assembly:

Baked the cod fillets; transferred to broiler and broiled until topping became crisp. Transferred to platter; reduced cooking liquid with some unsalted butter, added salt and white pepper. Plated the fish with some sauce and tomato jam.

Served the lentils, yogurt and apple crisps separately for people to mix and match as they chose.

As I am a lousy baker, I had bought a tarte tatin and some quality vanilla ice cream for dessert. Coffee, mint tea.

I had asked people to bring whatever wine of their choice to dinner (at least one red and one white). Evian, Perrier and tonic water for the non-alcoholically inclined amongst us. =)

1. Masala for the lentils: mace, black peppercorns, whole cloves, cinnamon sticks, green cardamom pods, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, ajwain seeds, ground ginger, ground nutmeg.

2. Masala for the yogurt: grated coconut, sesame seeds, black mustard seeds, saffron, green peppercorns, white peppercorns, green cardamom pods, cumin seeds, ground nutmeg.

All in all, it was a success. If I hadn't prepped at least a week in advance, things would've been different. Thank god for mandolines and food processors.

SA

[CathyL]

SA, what a nice celebration for your friends. I hope you're doing the wedding food too, because that's a tough act to follow. The pear/cashew salad and the cod especially, for me.

Thanks for sharing your detailed, evocative notes.

[SobaAddict70]

I am *not* doing the wedding food. I'll leave that to the professionals.

The most I've ever cooked for was about twenty people, and that was several years ago. At that point, things become less intimate and more prone to disaster (I kind of wonder how caterers do things actually). The twenty person extravaganza was only made possible by cooking numerous dishes large enough for six servings at most. I don't do very well when it comes to projecting quantities -- simply doubling or trebling the amount of salt for example probably isn't a solution.

Thanks anyway. I'd been planning this for a few months and was kind of nervous....glad to see that things worked out.

SA

[Malawry]

Mussels with white wine-rosemary-cream-shallot sauce, baguettes to soak up the juices

Mesclun with balsamic vinaigrette

Freshly made fettucine with shrimp and fresh tomato sauce

Scharffen Berger brownies.

[CathyL]

Mussels with white wine-rosemary-cream-shallot sauce, baguettes to soak up the juices

Mesclun with balsamic vinaigrette

Freshly made fettucine with shrimp and fresh tomato sauce

Scharffen Berger brownies.  

Lovely, Rochelle. Is cooking at home different now that you're in culinary school?

Brownies, the perfect food.

[Malawry]

I try to do at least some "homework" when I cook at home nowadays, but that usually means a twist on something we covered in class. The brownies are all me though.

[Fat Guy]

We had my wife's family over for dinner last night. We wanted to make a convenient but solid meal that could be enjoyed by a group that doesn't eat meat but does eat fish and dairy. For hors d'oeuvres we served guacamole (made by me) and humus (made by Costco; actually by Hannah Foods) with Stew Leonard's garlic-pita crisps. For a first course we served a platter of several varieties of tomatoes -- some from a friend's garden and some from the Union Square Greenmarket -- with chiffonade of basil sprinkled about the platter. We put out a tray with cruets containing vinaigrette, a nice Spanish olive oil from Santi Santamaria, 12-year almost-real balsamic from Pusateri's, plus sea salt and a pepper mill. This was paired with a summer vegetable risotto (I made this) that didn't turn out particularly well because I used a vegetarian stock that turned the whole thing a freaky beige color. The main course (also made by me) was Chilean sea bass with a sauce I copied from Sandor's restaurant in Florida: Soy, ginger, and honey. I hadn't bothered to get the recipe from him so I faked it. I also put some star anise in the sauce as I was making it and strained that out at the end. It was too sweet so I added some red wine vinegar to provide acidity. It came out quite well in the end, I thought. I just roasted the Chilean sea bass with salt, pepper, and grapeseed oil in a 400-degree oven for about 10 minutes, and put a tablespoon or so of the sauce over each piece. I also garnished the plate with some roasted tomato puree I had from a bag of Ducasse product samples that has been sitting around forever (the arborio rice for the risotto came from this sampler as well). A basic green salad and boiled corn (the inlaws brought this down from a farmstand near their home in Connecticut) were the accompaniments. Dessert was a fruit platter and a purchased cake (it was an anniversary for the inlaws).

[FoodMan]

last night I decided to use up my duck confit that I made last week. So I sauteed the duck confit, red onions, mushrooms, sundried tomatoes preserved in olive oil, and garlic (from the confit) in some duck fat and served it tossed with homemade black pepper Pappardelle with lots of fresh thyme and grated Parmeggiano on top. It was so good (the slight tang of the sundried tomatoes went great with the richness of the confit) that I decided to make it my first e-gullet picture :

FM

[tommy]

It was so good (the slight tang of the sundried tomatoes went great with the richness of the confit) that I decided to make it my first e-gullet picture   :

keep the pics coming! looks brilliant.

[SobaAddict70]

Sorry to hear about the risotto, FG. Was it particularly difficult to get the toothfish, seeing as how its being overfished?

SA

[Orik]

- Yogurt cheese balls, made with thick greek yogurt from the yogurt place on sullivan st (very good), rolled in za'atar and olive oil. Served with grilled pita.

- Baked kibbeh (kibbeh bil sannieh), topped with tahini (and then baked for 10 minutes longer)

- Melon soup with almond blancmange.

[southern girl]

Orik...would you mind sharing your recipe for kibbeh?

[Priscilla]

Saturday a nice 2-lb. piece of halibut, which the guy cut from a huge slab, like to see that, grilled. Smashed White Rose potatoes in deconstructed fully-loaded-baked-potato fashion, sour cream, bacon, a load of chives in there, salad of radicchio and avocado, which I like the way they look and taste together, hardly dressed with red-wine vinegar and olive oil, black pepper and sea salt. Chunk of Lurpak melting on the halibut. Sourdough.

[J Acord]

Sunday,

after a busy day watching the recreation of a roman gladiatorial games (and getting slightly sunburnt and getting a sore throat from all the shouting ) I decided to go for a roman dinner. This involved a lamb stew cooked with onions, cumin, coriander, fish sauce and plenty-much wine, a roast chicken stuufed with dill, coriander and leek, again with the fish sauce and then roasted ( a sweet sauce was poured over it just before serving), butter beans cooked with coriander, cumin seed, leek and again the obligatory fish sauce, and lots of foccacia to mop it all up with.

The dessert was dates stuffed with pine nuts, stewed in red wine and honey, fresh figs and melon and a pear patina (kind of pear custard, though wasn't sure if it turned out correct, mine was quite runny like a very thick custard, but I wonder if it was meant to set?).

All in all a very pleasant experience.

[cabrales]

J Acord -- When you have a chance, could you discuss whether the fish sauce might have been garum, traditionally prepared?