Dinner! 2002

[Miss J]

From the Cool Chile Company (at Borough Market, the Spice Shop, and Portobello Market as well as www.coolchile.co.uk). They have the small ones like what I saw in Mexico, rather than the enormous flour "wrap" tortillas that have become popular in the UK recently. And if you're really feeling adventurous, they also sell masa harina and tortilla presses.

The chorizo came from Brisinda at Borough Market, as usual.

[clb]

Spice Shop, Portobello Market = good

Borough Market = in my dreams (NW to SE London with two very small children - NO).

Thank you, Miss J.

clb

[Wilfrid]

Judicious shopping has created an excess of cider and heavy cream in my refrigerator, so I gave the treatment to a couple of pork cutlets last night. Served over caramelized apple rings, with the cream and cider sauce. Managed to ignore the calvados.

[Jinmyo]

Disclaimer: Yada yada, yada yada. Still, please try this at home.

Lobster risotto. (frozen lobster meat, carnaroli rice, butter and butter and butter)

Clear fish consomme (stock from shrimp and lobster shells, sake, lemongrass, ginger) with mussels and shiso.

Grilled huge shrimp with sambal and lime.

Salad of microgreens, baby spinach, chevre wrapped in filo packages (about thumb-sized) with toasted almonds and a tarragon-lime-almond oil dressing.

[tommy]

jinmyo, if you have the time, and are comfortable discussing your shrimp, could you tell me what you mean by shrimp with sambal and lime? were the shrimp marinated? was the sambal applied to the animal before applying heat? or perhaps it was just a dip?

[Jason Perlow]

Rachel made a yummy roasted chicken using cajun spices stuffed with lemons, which made a fantastic "gravy". Came out really nice and moist.

And Jim Dixon's roasted/caramelized cauliflower. God, I can never get tired of that stuff. You definitely need to make 2 heads though.

[Jinmyo]

tommy, I feel very comfortable. Thank you for asking.

First let me just say this:

ediot:

I forgot about the deep-fried shrimp heads.

I split the shells of the shrimp (one fills my palm), deveined, rubbed some sambal thinned out with olive oil. Grilled them on each side. When the shells were quite red, the flesh deep inside was still raw I pick them up with tongs and stand them up so that the flesh is to the grill pan. When they were finished I seasoned the flesh and plated them like that, tails up in the air with some more sambal mixed with olive oil, mirin, lime zest. Then gave the shrimp a spritz of lime juice.

[SobaAddict70]

Eggplant omelette. (For a recipe, click here.) Steamed rice. Stewed mixed greens with pork fat, garlic and a sprinkle of patis. Green tea, Lurisia. Silken tofu, steamed and topped with warmed orange blossom honey.

SA

[Adam Balic]

I forgot I also served coffee with Amedei "Chuao" chocolate. Discovered by accident that Chuao chocolate and bolotti beans taste good together.

[Akiko]

If you visit the spice shop at borough market (I really like them, they are very knowledgeable and wonderful) I must warn you. If he tries to get you to taste his szechwan peppercorns.. DON'T DO IT. I was all excited thinking he had really good ones because he insisted we put one in our mouth and so we did. And they were good ones, which meant it started out very florally and then a little spicy, and then very sour and more sour and hundred times more sour... my mouth was salivating like crazy, I was practically drooling. I had to go get some cheese to douse what was going on in my mouth!

[Priscilla]

Adam what does Venetian endive look like. They know from veg, those Venetians.

[Adam Balic]

Adam what does Venetian endive look like.  They know from veg, those Venetians.

Priscilla - I was being lazy. It was actually radicchio treviso. Also used in in the risotto. Looked very pretty on the plate.

Radicchio!

[Priscilla]

Adam what does Venetian endive look like.  They know from veg, those Venetians.

Priscilla - I was being lazy. It was actually radicchio treviso. Also used in in the risotto. Looked very pretty on the plate.

Radicchio!

Not lazy. At least, your phrase put the correct picture in my mind--that Treviso is strongly associated with Venezia for me. The couple of times I've been there there've been tons of it, beautifully arranged and of impeccable quality, in veg markets.

Who'da thunk there was a radicchio-dot-com?

[torakris]

Last night I was avoiding making a trip to the store and trying to use up what I had in the house including the six eggs I dropped on the floor earlier in the day, soooo.............

fritatta with onions, spinach, and tomatoes -- the tomatoes were a last minute throw in, I had been planning to make a sauce to serve with the fritatta but got lazy. Even though carefully seeded they still made it watery.

saffron scented chicken pilaf (from Nigella's Forever Summer) the taste was good enough but i had a couple problems. One, there is no salt or pepper called for in the entire recipe and it definitely needed the generous amount I used. The recipe calls for basmati flavored with saffron, cardamom and lemon juice and zest. She says the rice should be cooked in 10 to 15 minutes however mine took cloer to 25 and ended up being clumped together (think Japanese rice) rather than light and fluffy like my pilafs normally are. This dish is finished off with toasted cashews, almonds and pine nuts, parsley and chicken browned separately (after being marinated with yogurt, lemon juice and cinnamon, but no salt and pepper?!). The Dish was then sprinkled with pistachios. Despite all of the flavorful components, it was on the bland side and the texture of the rice was disappointing.

Went to bed early so there was no dessert.

[Jinmyo]

Kristin, I usually either roast tomatoes for a frittata or start them in the pans long before the egg goes in. That way, when they're flipped out, the tomatoes are on top and look fabulous.

[torakris]

Kristin, I usually either roast tomatoes for a frittata or start them in the pans long before the egg goes in. That way, when they're flipped out, the tomatoes are on top and look fabulous.

Thanks for the advice.

I have never had good luck with tomatoes in a fritatta. I have used a Marcella Hazan recipe for carmelized onion, tomato and basil fritatta and while it tastes great the resulting dish is a very unappetizing muddy brown.

I really regret throwing the tomatoes in last night, they were flavorless tomatoes to begin with and I thought the fritatta could help them, but instead they ruined the fritatta.

Lesson learned!

I will definitely try roasting next time.

[Jinmyo]

You can slow roast at around 250 F for a few hours (EVOO, s&p) or just blast them at 350 for 40 minutes.

[torakris]

You can slow roast at around 250 F for a few hours (EVOO, s&p) or just blast them at 350 for 40 minutes.

can this help improve the taste of bland tomatoes?

Unfortunately this is all I have access to.

[Jinmyo]

Yes, it will. It will intensify what flavour they have by reducing the liquid content. It will add flavours through the caramelization. And of of course EVOO and s&p.

[Charlene Leonard]

Sautéed some slivers of garlic in EVOO and lots of butter and added chopped parasol and cep mushrooms I picked in the New Forest at the weekend. Generous grinding of salt and pepper and lots of parsley served with some spaghetti I’ve never seen before called Chitarra All’Uovo (means guitar strings and is more square than normal spaghetti with a rougher surface and firmer texture). Washed down with the freshly squeezed juice of some clementines I needed to use up.

[Adam Balic]

Chitarra All’Uovo

My favourite pasta. Bought the Chitarra to make it last time I was in Italy.

Nice dinner, you are very luckt to be able to pick your own mushrooms.

[Wilfrid]

Improvised a pork stir fry from what was available. I do need to go shopping. Only thing worth mentioning was that I shredded some iceberg lettuce and cucumber and threw it in, and it gave the finished dish some excellent crunch.

Not a decent scrap of cheese in the house.

[Jinmyo]

Disclaimer: Professional kitchen, staff of three. Still, please try this at home.

Sliced seared duck breast interleaved with slices of porcini mushroom (these were from my freezer) sauteed in the duck fat. Green garlic stem puree (with mirin and ginger).

Baby Yukon Gold potatoes, parboiled, smashed slightly, fried in EVOO, with rosemary.

Spinach wilted in butter.

[Priscilla]

Tonkatsu (fried pork cutlet), sake-simmered Japanese carrots from the Japanese lady at the farmer's market, nice Blue Lake green beans from my amigo at the farmer's market with miso-sesame dressing, cabbage pickle, rice from the cooker.

[Jinmyo]

Priscilla, did you make a tonkatsu sauce?