Dinner! 2002

[Wilfrid]

Let me say that being stuck at work several late nights in a row sucks...

Horns of a dilemma for me:  such circumstances mean I want really good, home-prepared food, but also that I don't have the time or energy to do it.  I will eat take-away if I;ve been slobbing around bars all evening, but if I've been working I deserve better.

While at the French Butched, I pciked up an order of his home-made cassoulet.  That sorts tonight out, and it looks like we have cassoulet weather here in NYC too.

[SobaAddict70]

Last night:  sauteed bay scallops with a citrus-butter sauce; herbed rice pilaf; steamed asparagus.

Tonight -- Joe's stone crabs with all the trimmings.  Get them while the season lasts -- you have until May 15.

[Wilfrid]

Soba, if I may be so informal, when sauteeing bay scallops, do you have a problem with them giving off a lot of liquid?  That rather put me off cooking them in that fashion, but maybe I was doing something wrong.  Enjoy your crabs!

[Liza]

We got round to trying the Ducasse method of roast chicken, in which you brown the chicken first. Delicious. With fresh roasted asparagus and a puree of sauteed spinach, bok choy, a little bit of sausage and garlic.

[AdamLawrence]

I roasted a chicken on Sunday, it was a brand called 'Label Rouge' - ironically produced in England - but trying to replicate some of the better French corn-fed chickens. One of the best supermarket chickens I've had, though sadly I overcooked it a little. Deglazed pan with Noilly Prat and served with purple sprouting broccoli bought from the butcher-cum-greengrocer in our village.

Since there were only two of us, and the chicken was nearly two kilos, there was plenty of leftover meat. So last night we had our usual chicken leftovers meal, a roast chicken risotto. It's stretching the boundaries a bit to call it a recipe, but I nicked the basic process from Nigel Slater - sweat onion in mix of oil and butter, add rice (I use Carnaroli) for a couple of minutes, then a glass of white wine, then start adding the stock. Shortly before rice is cooked, add chicken, then a bit of cream, some Parmesan and a load of flat parsley. Served with a green salad with a mustard (Maille grain) dressing, a plate of tomatoes and some bread.

Tonight's the lady wife's photography class, so we'll have something quick. Lucy's mum visited at the weekend and brought us some eggs from her chickens, so I think we might have mushroom omelettes, again with salad, tomatoes and bread. Then I shall go to the pub. I wonder what the guest beer will be?

Adam

[Jinmyo]

Mac N Cheese.

(Baked ziti with a porcini bechamel, grated parmesan, chevre, croutons, crushed fennel seeds and fennel fronds.)

With hot dogs.

(Hot Italian liver sausages with fried onions.)

edit: Oops. Almost forgot about the catsup. (Blackened tomatoes pulped, mixed with roasted ancho, buzzed with handblender.)

[helenas]

Jinmyo,

your dishes are awesome, as usual!

If you don't mind, could you tell more about the last dinner?

Have you used dry porcini?

And croutons, were they used instead of bread crumbs?

[Jinmyo]

Helena, I used dry porcini, whizzed them in a spice grinder, soaked them in melted butter, strained the particles out before making the bechamel.

I make croutons from torn bread, toasted in the oven with olive oil and basic seasonings. For this, I smashed them up before sprinkling them (heavily) on the casserole.

Adam. Oh yoy!

edit:

Oh, helena, I forgot. Thank you.

[SobaAddict70]

Not really.  The ones I used last night didn't exude too much liquid.  I think the key here is to use an appropriately hot pan and only put them on for as long as it takes to cook them.  My problem is taking them off before they start to overcook.

Oh, incidentally, the citrus glaze came out great.  Just a simple reduction of orange juice, grated orange zest and bits of unsalted butter whisked in from time to time, along with a tablespoon or two of pan juices from the scallops.

[Wilfrid]

Hmm.  I may well have dumped too many in the pan at once, thus reducing the temperature.  I'll have to give it another try.

Thanks.

[SobaAddict70]

Three or four at a time is best, in my experience.

[SobaAddict70]

Oh wow it was a lot of food.

Manhattan Clam Chowder (a bit on the spicy side);

Coleslaw (too sweet);

Creamed Spinach (sort of ok);

5 large stone crab claws per person.

Mustard sauce...  (lemon juice was better)

and a whole key lime pie.  In fact, the pie was the best of the bunch.  Buttery graham cracker crust and a perfect filling.

Not bad for $250, but not something I could do everyday.

[Adam_Balic]

Pie!

Well, actually tartlets (about 3 to 4 per serving) stuffed with chicken and wild mushrooms (morels, lobster, porcini) with rosemary cream. Topped with a bit of roasted garlic compound butter. A salad of chicken crackling and sauteed shallots, chicken hearts, gizzards, and livers poured over mesclun. A soup of tomato water with grape tomatoes stuffed with a leaf of basil and a few drops of lobster oil. Slices of ricotta dura with a few drops of 25 year old balsmico tradizionale (to celebrate Pie).

cabrales, I'll msg you.

I'm so glad you had pie. Last night I was reading through my first edition of Jane Grigson's "Good Things" (found in small bookshop for a few quid = well chuffed). The is an entire section on PIE. Opening sentence "Most of us have a weakness for (meat) pie. Or should I say for a platonic ideal of (meat) pies?".Mmmm Platonic Pie, so full of Plato goodness.

Did you make your own Lobster oil? Recipe sounds V. good, but is it Platonic pie? .

I like Ziti. Especially, when made into that famous Sicillian Ziti/sardine/fennel/saffron/sultana baked pasta dish.

[Jinmyo]

What is not Pie? Whatever is enclosed between the crusts of earth and sky is surely Pie.

Pie can be a tart, a dumpling, a sandwich. But a sandwich (as I was telling Bux re Croque Monsiuer) is not Pie.

Pie is the mutual enfolding of absolute and relative, context and content.

What is, is Pie.

Yes, my own lobster oil. Shells. So a kind of pie as well.

lullyloo, I've msged you.

[AdamLawrence]

There's a quite lovely Italian butter I get occasionally in Waitrose (posh English supermarket) called Burro Occelli. According to the very broken English encomium on the packaging, it won some kind of butter taste-off run by Wine Spectator (which suggests it must be available in the US). Whether that's a good or a bad thing, I don't know, but the butter is fab. I recommend it.

cheers

Adam

[Miss J]

Miss J, with the spicing given the salmon and potatoes, pickled mango would go nicely. It has quite a crisp crunch to it. You can find it in Asian groceries, particularly Vietnamese.

Jinmyo - I LIKE that idea. In fact, I think I'll run out this weekend and track down a jar. My spicing gets stronger as the weather heats up, so I'm sure I'll be using it very soon indeed.  

Miss J

[Miss J]

Oh man...after all this talk of pie, I'm hungry. Again. And just 30 seconds after feeling intrigued by mango pickle too...I am SO feckless.

Maybe tonight after I've tried making ricotta a la Balic I'll turn my attention to pie. But what kind? Just 2.5 hours of thinking about pies whilst pretending to work before I can go out looking for ingredients...  

Miss J

[Jinmyo]

Grilled thick cut bone-in pork loin chop with a pepper and cumin crust on a rutabaga puree with watercress; garlic-rubbed crostini; stewed basiled tomatoes with white kidney and fava beans and Thai bird chiles; roasted asparagus with cremini mushrooms and parmesan shavings; celery root salad with lemon zest.

Eat the pork chop with your hand, clutching the bone. Don't worry. There's lemon water in that bowl.

[Sandra Levine]

I hate following Jinmyo.

Flounder, meuniere moderne -- filets dusted with flour, sauteed, pan deglazed with lime juice, a little more butter and some chopped coriander sprinkled atop.  Ramps, par-boiled, buttered, with salt, pepper and nutmeg.  Frizzled burdock shreds.  Mache salad, with walnut oil and sherry vinegar.  A scrap of Spanish sheep cheese with a sliver of quince paste.  Sticky rice pudding with caramelized banana.

[mamster]

Hey, I've got one.  Near the back of the current Gourmet there's a recipe for some chicken patties over bean thread salad.  The chicken is ground with water chestnuts, cilantro, and jalapeno.  I monkeyed with the recipe a bit but was still afraid that it might come out tasting like health food (it was in the "lite" section of Gourmet).  The meat is formed into patties, three to a skewer, and sauted.

I got a good crust on the patties.  The salad (with english cuke, carrot, napa cabbage, and rice vinaigrette) was, well, rather noodley.  Laurie's going to take some of the veggies and leftover patties with pita tomorrow.

[Liza]

Davy gets all the credit for this one: he melted butter, added saffron, ginger, a little date syrup and reduced. This was then left to set into a paste, which we later rubbed under the skin and all over a chicken. The resulting bird was incredibly moist and flavored throughout. Really lovely, with a side dish of huitlacoche (corn smut), corn, onion, tomato, with a slew of spices - all mixed together and then topped with Cantal and slipped under the broiler. The huitlacoche came in cans and was brought back from Mexico by an enterprising friend.

[lullyloo]

Tried Jim Dixon's recipe for pasta with fermented black bean sauce last night, chock-full of ginger, garlic and fresh cilantro.  

It was something else.  There are so many possibilities for this sauce. I used linguini (my favorite long noodle), added sauteed chicken breast, snow peas, jalapenos, and topped with chopped fresh plum tomatoes.  Sided it with fat asparagus roasted briefly in olive oil.  Juicy delish.

 black bean sauce (scroll down)

[Andy Lynes]

Made a version of a Henry Harris dish on Saturday - warm salad of anya potatos, asparagus, chestnut mushrooms and bacon with red wine vinegar cream sauce (thats my version, the "proper" recipe is jersey royals, morels, asparagus and bacon with hollandaise).

Blanch the asparagus, cook the pots until just tender, then saute in butter, add the mushrooms and cook through, then the  bacon and asparagus at the last moment just to reheat. Pile into bowls, then deglaze the pan with the best red wine vinegar you can find and add some whipping cream. Poor over the salad and sprinkle with chopped parsley. Wash down with Pol Roger White Foil. Follow with a plate of Montgomery cheddar and walnut bread. Yum.

[col klink]

Saturday I made my baked baby red potatoes with onions. Tossed with parsley, garlic (last 15 minutes), asparagus spears (again, last 15 minutes, normally I roast them separately but I was lazy). Olive oil was drizzled over everything and there was plenty of coarse cracked pepper.

Sunday my buddy smoked up a leg of lamb that I brought over after marinating overnight in mustard, hot sauce, lime juice, peppar and many cloves of garlic, served medium rare. Until this weekend, I had forgotten how much I missed lamb. It was so juicy and succulent!

edit:  

oops, I forgot the brown sugar!

[Priscilla]

Pork tenderloin, dusted with dry mustard and allowed to sit around a bit for the mustard to activate before being dusted again, this time with flour, and browned on all sides, salted and peppered, bunged into the oven to finish whilst I attended to the closing minutes of asparagus risotto.

Deglazed with a hit of wine, seriously reduced, then a little heavy cream, allowed to reduce, salt and (especially) pepper adjusted, to make a little sauce.  Tenderloin sliced, arrayed on the very last of my backyard curly endive, bolting faster than I can pick it now, risotto mounded on the other end of the platter, sauce over the pork, served!  Bread based on that pain Italien in Bernard Clayton's Breads of France, a bread I've made for years but now am trying to make it happen with diastatic malt powder, rather than malt syrup.

Priscilla