Dinner! 2002

[Jinmyo]

Kaiseki is basically "haute" cuisine, derived from Tea ceremony.

I did macrobiotics in the early 70s and even made my own miso. I don't think we'd agree about it.

[Jim Dixon]

I cut delicata squash by sticking the point of a chef's knife straight down in the center (picture the long squash on its side, knife points straight down toward cutting board, tip at midpoint of squash), then rotating the blade down through the bottom end (the end without the stem)...I pull out the knife, stand squash on stem end, and, using the existing cut, finish slicing it half lengthwise...never seems to be too hard.

I typically start dinner at the last minute, so I often wrap the halves in palstic and microwave for about 5 minutes, then scoop out cooked flesh. If i have more time, I'll roast since you get that nice browning and a little caramel flavor.

Jim

[SobaAddict70]

Last night -- standard workout dinner: steak, steamed rice. stir-fried veggies, w/ garlic and ginger. Evian. ricotta cheese and eucalpytus honey.

SA

[Priscilla]

Nice little Niman Ranch pork roast, browned in the old Le Creuset 3.5 L the like of which has been discussed quite a bit except mine is the short-lived grey ombre, ombre grey, whatever. Sliced onion, handful of garlic, handful of sage leaves, three Roma tomatoes from the moribund vine, white wine glug glug glug, s & p, pinch of red pepper flakes. Lid bunged on, into the oven. Later, pot accumulation put through the old food mill, reduced, enriched with heavy cream, served with the way done meat. Pan-fried little potatoes with anchovy. Broccoli gratineed with Mornay sauce.

[SobaAddict70]

What the hell is kaiseki formal cuisine?

*sigh* I just realized I deleted my own post in favor of a post about what I made for dinner last night.

Anyway...

If you're in NYC or happen to visit NYC sometime soon, you might check out Sugiyama. The restaurant happens to offer the closest possible approach (imo) to formal kaiseki cuisine, short of travelling to Japan.

I think that if you were in Japan, that the hot lava rock with the Kobe beef and lobster course would be left out. I feel, and this is just speculation on my part, that Nao offers this course as a catering to Western tastes, and also because ppl seem to expect the utilization of Kobe beef if ppl are going to be spending $125 a head for a multi-course dinner. (The lava rock course pales in comparison to the rest of the meal, in my opinion.)

If you were in Japan, and you had a kaiseki dinner, there would probably be a meal focused on the matsutake mushroom which is in season right now. (Jin? I could be wrong here.) There might be a course, for example, utilizing the caps; a course utilizing the stems, as a major ingredient; a course involving matsutake broth; etc. The idea is to create a meal involving the senses with an eye towards an awareness of the seasons and harmony within nature, and a focus on the ingredients while utilizing the simplest possible means. (Jin?)

SA

[Jim Dixon]

Those pasta haters over on the Italy thread made me want some, so I roasted a head of cauliflower, tossed with penne, bit of garlic, red pepper flakes, bread crumbs, and, natch, olive oil. Had some leftover baby artichokes I'd brasied with fresh Meyer lemon and olive oil, so ate those with it.

The pasta was a traditional style from Tuscany (semolina flour, brass dye extruded, air-dried) like Rustichella, but only $1.99 at TJ awhile back. Came in a brown paper wrapper, can't remember name, but it was good, especially at that price.

Jim

[torakris]

If you were in Japan, and you had a kaiseki dinner, there would probably be a meal focused on the matsutake mushroom which is in season right now.  (Jin?  I could be wrong here.)  There might be a course, for example, utilizing the caps; a course utilizing the stems, as a major ingredient; a course involving matsutake broth; etc.  The idea is to create a meal involving the senses with an eye towards an awareness of the seasons and harmony within nature, and a focus on the ingredients while utilizing the simplest possible means.  (Jin?)

SA

No I am not Jin, but you are right on about kaiseki.

It is a multiple course traditonal meal utilizing the both the seasonal foods and meibutsu (local specialities?) as well as using various cooking techniques (raw, steaming, grilling, simmering, deep frying, etc).

Right now in Japan you will see a lot of focus on matsutake and well as other mushrooms, chestnuts (kuri), and sanma (saury pike?).

As to the miso soup, I was thinking about it as I was preparing miso soup for dinner last night. There are miso based soups that are always sauteed first, however they are not referred to as miso shiru. One, kenjiru, is a multiple ingredient miso type soup. Various veggies, such as carrots, onions, satoimo (type of taro?), daikon, gobo (burdock) are sauteed with a little oil, usually sesame, and then dashi is added. After simmering for a while other foods such as tofu, aburage and konnyaku are added. The miso used for this is always the most common golden/brown variety.

Another soup is tonjiru, almost the same as kenjiru but with the addition of thinly sliced pork sauteed along with veggies.

Garnishes for both of these could consist of Japanese negi (cross between a scallion and a leek?), mitsuba, and or shichimi.

[Jinmyo]

torakris, thanks as always.

Soba, you are of course correct.

Certainly sauteed ingredients or "oily, fatty" foods might be cooked together with miso.

But miso shiru at its best is at its simplest.

Grilling is a much more palatable cooking method than sauteeing for Japanese cuisine which is essentially water-based, while Chinese is oil-based, French is butter-based, Italian is butter or EVOO depending upon region, and British food is, um, suety.

[Jinmyo]

Seperate comment:

torakris, have you had any matsutake yet? Much of what is sold there is grown in British Columbia.

[torakris]

Seperate comment:

torakris, have you had any matsutake yet? Much of what is sold there is grown in British Columbia.

No I haven't yet

I have actually seen very little in the stores this year, and most of what I have seen is either from China or Korea.

A couple weeks back we were on a road trip with some friends and there was a stand on the side of the road selling matsutake. We pulled off and were surprised to find it was imported from China!?

I haven't heard anything yet but I wonder if they are having problems this year?

[Double 0]

Scrambled eggs fried in butter

Fried onions and the last of my hot peppers from the garden

Heinz purple catsup

All on white toast.

It don't get better then dat!

[winodj]

Yesterday, I made Orzo in beef broth. Yum. I like to think of it as at least one or two steps above Mac and Cheese :)

[Nick]

I'm happy that I was able to get a good discussion going on miso soup. Almost any way it's done, it's both delicious and healthful. And thanks for enlightening me on Japanese traditional ways.

But good miso stands on its own and doesn't necessarily need to be done in one way or another just because its origin is in Japan.

Maybe we should start a miso thread in cooking so people that haven't come here could chime in. The world of miso, like wine, is endless.

[tommy]

Maybe we should start a miso thread in cooking so people that haven't come here could chime in. The world of miso, like wine, is endless.

that's a great idea, considering all of the interesting things that can be done with miso.

[Jinmyo]

Yes, miso is wonderful. I've used aka miso with sake as a glaze for roast pork. I've used shiro miso in a white onion soup that was then gratined with garlic croutons and munster.

[Nick]

Miso also finds its place in a bean soup. I once cooked a Thanksgiving dinner and a friend brought some bean soup that was delicious. I asked him how he made it so good and he said it was from some beans his mother had given him and some old miso he had. Later on he gave me the 20+ year old Erewhon I now have in the cupboard.

[Wilfrid]

Another bistro classic, salade des gesiers. I make this every couple of months - a salad of mixed green leaves tossed with chicken (duck if you can get them) gizzards which have been braised in red wine with onions. The gizzards got some fresh rosemary and sage treatment too this time. Also threw in some little bintje potatoes from Union Square, which I find very good cold (or lukewarm) - waxy and biteable.

A tumber of vin ordinaire, then a snifter of Otard XO, which made me wish I smoked cigars.

(Gizzards are not much more than $1 per lb in supermarkets. Go on and try them. But braise at around 325F for more than an hour until they are tender to the knifepoint, or they will be too chewy.)

[Priscilla]

Wow Wilfrid that sounds good. Got a teeny Otard bottle from a long-ago AF flight among my Christmas tree ornaments.

The salad too, she hastens to add. I like gizzards. In the mists of history I can almost make out Popeye's Bucket O'Gizzards, or was that a waking nightmare.

I also like sauteed chicken or duck livers on salad, the pan deglazed with, well, something very similar to the aforereferenced Otard, and then hit with a few T. of heavy cream and reduced and then poured over all to wiltinize. Madeleine Kamman's.

Last night, pronounced as "bland" by the 11-year-old: supremes au volaille a la creme (sage and a garlic clove kicking around in the saute pan), nice pilaf-type riz, carrots Vichy, no l'eau Vichy but otherwise pretty much on the continuum.

I preferred "subtle" to "bland." Gave the short version of Not Everything is Super-Spicy, You Know, and while I do not think I won any hearts or minds to my word choice, the proof's always in the pud and dinner was eaten with alacrity, which is all a cook really needs to see.

(Corrected spelling. Well, not really, unless one is of the mind that a typographical error is equivalent to mispelling...or would that be misspelling?)

[mixmaster b]

My wonderful fiance made a classic bolognese (at least I think it was classic--recipe courtesy Mario B.) with lovely thin papardelle. Heaven.

Consumed late at night wiith a super-delish Tomassi Amarone ('95, I think).

Sometime you can't improve on the basics.

[snowangel]

Perfect NY strips; roasted new potatos, squash and califlower; a small salad of the babiest of greens (the ones that didn't freeze the other night); home-made coffee and cashew ice cream. Washed down with Pilsner Urquat (milk for the kids).

[Liza]

Ohmygoodness, the Belle Rouge chicken is really terrific. (Available Wednesdays at Union Square - Priscilla, shall I send you one?)

Rubbed all over with foie gras mousse and butter and thyme. Roasted. With potatoes and onions.

[Suzanne F]

A bastardized version of the Gnocchi Verde in Marcella Hazan's The Classic Italian Cookbook (the original first one): non-fat cottage cheese instead of ricotta, and turkey baloney instead of mortadella. You know what, they were still pretty damn good. Of course, baking them with crème fraiche and cheese helped a lot.

Romaine, endive, radicchio, and parsley salad with lemon thyme vinaigrette.

Schneider Chardonnay 1999, North Fork Long Island

[CathyL]

Saturday night, a gloomy-weather standby: bastard cioppino of cod cooked with onion, garlic, red pepper and red wine.

Last night, a T'giving tryout of a Richard Olney recipe I haven't made in a while: winter squash gratin. Cubes of butternut tossed with garlic, parsley, S&P and a little flour, piled into an oiled earthenware dish, more EVOO drizzled, baked in a 325 oven for 2+ hours. Very nice indeed.

[haunted_chef]

ok ....its finally cooled off here in houston, so I whipped up some shrimp and chese stuffed jalapenos(wrapped in bacon of course) and a couple racks of ribs. I then tossed them in the smoker.

My friends and I then kicked back watched the football game and enjoyed cold beer while the food cooked....and yes it was fabulous!!! A great way to enjoy a Sunday.

john

[researchgal]

A perfect fall meal for the dreary weather here...

Coq au vin with garlic mashed potatoes, roasted cauliflower, and haricot verts. Chocolate macaroons w/the last raspberries from the local farm for dessert