Dinner! 2002

[Wilfrid]

Soba, I am determined to try the dish you described a while back, invlolving brussel sprouts, red pepper flakes and penne.

Just a question about the sprouts.  Being English, my instinct is to boil sprouts into a state of non-being, making the entire apartment smell like a hospital ward.  I understand that this time I am sauteeing them.  That's it, no parboiling/blanching, right?  And when you say the sprouts are chopped, do you mean just quartered, or finely chopped?

Many thanks in advance.

[SobaAddict70]

First, one container of sprouts is sufficient for three or four people.  If they're hearty eaters, then consider one and a half containers worth.

When prepping the sprouts, half each sprout and slice off a little portion of the base.  You're going to de-leaf each and every sprout so that you'll end up with approximately 2 cups of sprout leaves and finely minced cores per 1 container of brussel sprouts.  By "cores", I mean the pithy center core of each sprout, which you'll mince or chop finely.

Since the mass of sprouts will have been reduced to leaves and bits of core, no blanching or parboiling is needed.  Just brown the onions and garlic, add the red pepper flakes (and anchovy if you like, wait for the anchovy to disintegrate before adding the sprouts); then add the leaves and cores.  Saute over medium-high heat for a few minutes, then cover and turn the heat down to medium-low, cook until the leaves are bright green and the cores are softened slightly.  Trust me, your house won't smell like cabbage when you're through.

Finish with salt and pepper to taste, and a drizzle (or as much as you like) of EVOO.

[Priscilla]

Last night Niman Ranch rib-eyes cooked according to Alain Ducasse's method outlined in the NYT several weeks back, to good result.  (Ref. 3-Star Chef topic over in General.)  The basting with accumulated renderment and butter created such a good-tasting crust.  While the steaks were taking their prescribed rest, fresh crispy finely-chopped scallions softened and browned in what remained in the cooking pan, later served over the sliced beef.  Beet greens, a favorite veg, but in a new-to-me variety called Tall Top Wonder, I think the guy said, braised in cream.  Mashed Yukon Gold potatoes from the organic guy at the farmer's market with a coupla garlic cloves cooked in.  Nice little salad from the garden.  Bread.

Priscilla

[Miss J]

Friday night, home alone in front of the telly. Boyfriend is out on a stag night, is due to crawl into bed reeking of lager and kebabs around four this morning. And we all know what that means - Miss J can have a flaming chile fest!

Tonight I'm finally test driving Boiled Beef Slices in a Firey Sauce (or Shui Zhu Niu Rou, for you Chinese speakers out there). Bascially: a big, steamy bowl of finely sliced beef steak in a rich broth fragrant with chile bean paste and spring onions, topped off with a drizzle of sizzling oil enriched with finely chopped, fried facing heaven chiles and very numbing Sichuan peppercorns. And a wee bowl of rice on the side to calm my mouth down every few minutes.

Bliss. The endorphins are AMAZING up here...  

Miss J

[Wilfrid]

And we all know what that means - Miss J can have a flaming chile fest!

I am relieved, for your sake, that that's all it means!  

More seriously - I think - can you enlarge on the "facing heaven" chilis?  Or is that a sort of poetic description of just reglar old chilis.

Anyway - enjoy.  I may be dining on small pretzels at a Manhattan gin palace known as "Jimmy's".

[Miss J]

And we all know what that means - Miss J can have a flaming chile fest!

I am relieved, for your sake, that that's all it means!  

More seriously - I think - can you enlarge on the "facing heaven" chilis?  Or is that a sort of poetic description of just reglar old chilis.

Anyway - enjoy.  I may be dining on small pretzels at a Manhattan gin palace known as "Jimmy's".

Wilfrid, facing heaven chiles are a type of chile recommended for Sichuan cookery. You can find a pic of them here.

Being a girl whose bloke is not fond of chile, and is especially not fond of chiles in soup, any time he's going to be away for dinner has become known in our flat as a "spicy soup and foreign films night." Tonight the film is Amelie.  

Pretzels are my favourite snack, by the way. So your night on the booze is actually quite appealing.  

Miss J

[SobaAddict70]

No plans tonight on what to cook -- gonna be a night out at Republic (rated #95 on Sietsema's list of cheap inexpensive Asian places in the Village Voice), and then a screening of Episode II later on.  From what I hear, you either love it or hate it....

Saturday (plans subject to change but I have a hankering for this):  stir-fried ground pork with scallions, Chinese black mushrooms, ginger, and hoisin sauce; broccoli and snow peas with mushroom soy; Szechuan pickled turnips; steamed rice.  

(Note from Soba:  you can get the pickled turnips from an Asian specialty food market.  A really good one is Kam Man, the giant Chinese superstore in NYC's Chinatown, located on Canal Street (I think its near Mott Street, but can't remember exactly where, although you can't miss it).

I have friends coming over for brunch on Sunday.  Yeah, yeah I know its not dinner, but I'm not gonna be home since I'll have to be in the office later that evening, so sue me.

Brunch:  French toast, served with a Calvados spiked apple compote; omelettes with chorizo, avocado, and roasted cherry tomatoes; home fries; chipotle, citrus, and roasted tomato salsa (on the side).  I'll make the compote and the salsa on Saturday, to let the flavors in both dishes meld; everything else is pretty straightforward.  The batter for the French toast will have a teensy bit of Calvados, just for kicks.  

[lullyloo]

Marinated a slew of pork chops in yoghurt, fresh garlic and ginger paste, ground coriander, cumin, turmeric, garam masala, pounded cardamom and fennugreek seeds, vietnamese chili sauce, salt and a splash of lemonade.  They sat for about seven hours, then got broiled.  Talk about brining.  The combination of salt and yoghurt made a very powerful tenderizer.  I've never had pork chops so tender.  It was almost like a different meat.  (kind of scared me actually) And the marinade (basically a tandoori) gave great flavor.  Sided with sweet potato chunks roasted with ground pepper and garlic cloves, asparagus and cauliflower.  As Sunday is my only cooking day in my current living routine, that's dinner all week long folks . . .

[Wilfrid]

SobaAddict's penne with sprouts worked out fine on Saturday night.  Only question was about the leaves.  I did find them a little al dente, but clearly I shouldn't be blanching them first.  Maybe next time I'll take a few minutes to remove the main veins.  Or should I have sauteed them for longer?  Anyway, interesting flavors, and a nice change for someone who tends to cook a lump of protein with a nice sauce.

Last night, I cooked a lump of protein with a nice sauce.  Filet mignon simply seared with a butter and salt crust.  A few morels, cooked with chopped shallot and garlic; poured in some tawny port, reduced and finished with a knob of butter.  The morels drank up plenty of port and were sweet and delicious.

[Liza]

Wilfrid, may I suggest roasting the sprouts? (0Why 'soitenly I may!) Course, I suggest roasting for nearly everything, but roasted brussel sprouts, with a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper, is like candy for me. I roast 'em whole, by the way.

Dinner last night: brined organic chicken for a few hours; then rubbed it all over with foie gras butter and roasted it with root vegetables. Served with parsnip puree drizzled with parsley juice.

[SobaAddict70]

Or you can cook the sauce a minute or two more than you did this time, then the leaves won't be al dente.

The pasta with sprouts and fried bread crumbs will be my contribution to the e-gullet dinner.  You'll get some e-feedback for sure...woot woot.

[Malawry]

Dinner last night was unremarkable (toasted baguette smeared with butter and jam), but brunch was lovely:

Arugula salad with mustard-shallot dressing and a poached duck egg

Herbes de Provence goat cheese croustades

Homemade spinach-ricotta ravioli in a sage-butter sauce with fresh peas

And my friend brought a blueberry lemon tart. Very spring-y.

[yvonne johnson]

Spaghetti with warm olive oil in which two finely sliced garlic cloves had been warmed while the pasta cooked. Generous scattering of parmesan cheese, salt and pepper. Some Italian red.  Simple and so good.

[Sandra Levine]

Kofta made from Mrs. Singh's recipe, but using ground turkey in deference to a non-red meat eater  Deeply flavorful from aromatic spices with some heat.  Roasted cauliflower with cumin.  Leftover pilau from recent Indian take-out meals.  India pale ale.

[CathyL]

Smoked trout pate with pumpernickel ficelle rounds, and raw veggies - French breakfast radishes, season's first (for me, anyway) sugar snaps, baby cucumbers.  Leg of lamb, slathered with a paste of garlic, mustard, rosemary, soy, olive oil, lightly smoked over rosemary sprigs & sugar maple.  Grilled asparagus, oven-roasted potato & sweet potato spears.  Walnut cake layers sandwiched with fig preserves and a mix of fresh goat cheese/mascarpone.

Very nice Alsatian pinot gris to start, and a 2000 Coturri Zinfandel (don't drink this standing up) with the lamb.

[schmoopie]

Last night my husband and I couldn't decide between scampi and scallopini w/lemon & caper sauce.  So, I cooked both!  

I added tarragon to my usual scampi recipe and mixed the butter w/sauteed garlic and seasonings (read this somewhere or another) and found it made a huge difference over just butter, oil and raw garlic.  I'll be making it this way from now on.

There were green olives, capers and carmalized lemon slices, along with the usual garlic, shallot, oil combo with the scallopini (I used chicken instead of veal).

I separated the two items on the plate with sauteed yellow and red swiss chard.

My husband was a very happy man.

[Adam_Balic]

schmoopie - When you say Scampi, do you mean a sauce with shrimp-type things in it or a spicy tomato sauce with no Scampi? While in DC I ordered pasta with Scampi sauce and got the latter, when I questioned that lack of scampi in the scampi sauce I was told that "Scampi" just ment spicy in the USA.

[schmoopie]

Adam,

Technically, (I think) scampi is italian for a small lobster like crustasean (sp).  In the US, we cook shrimp "in the scampi style"  meaning, butter, garlic, oil and herbs. This is according to Lidia of Felida's as well as other italian cooks I know.  Many people refer to it as "shrimp scampi".

So I guess the answer to your question is the former rather than the latter description.  I myself have never heard that scampi means spicy in the US, but then again, my experience pales in comparison to the rest of the members.

[SobaAddict70]

Monday:  Leftover hoisin pork from Saturday dinner; stir-fried rice (my basic recipe is leftover rice, garlic, minced scallions and a few shreds of ginger, and mushroom soy if I feel like it; occasionally I'll add some chopped Chinese sausage, beaten eggs and/or sliced black mushrooms; sometimes I'll stir-fry until the rice forms a slight crust in the wok, but usually only for about three to four minutes or thereabouts)

Tuesday:  Baked chicken thighs (marinated in yogurt, turmeric, garlic, chopped onion, cumin, fennel seeds and ginger); sauteed kale; coconut rice pilaf; vanilla ice cream with leftover Calvados apple compote from Sunday's brunch.

[Adam_Balic]

The issue plagued me so that I looked up the etymology of the word. Comes from the Greek "Kampe", which is the shrimp/lobster thing. I wonder if the American usage of the word was originally "Sauce as for Scampi", then the "as for" bit dropped out of popular usage. Anyway I can sleep peacfully now!

[Andyzipp]

Tonight...Bavarian Butterflied pork chops, new potatoes and white asparagus.

And Sauerkraut, but that's just for me.

[Wilfrid]

I like sauerkraut.  Are you making it from scratch?  I cheat.  The way I cheat is to buy commercial sauerkraut, drain it, rinse it very thoroughly to get rid of that rank vinegar, then heat it gently in wine - something like a riesling - with a few juniper berries.

Then, of course, you can pile all the ham and foie gras on top!

[Priscilla]

I like sauerkraut, too.

However, last evening roasted a lamb loin, nice textural contrast between the loin and the tenderloin sides.  Deglazement enriched with compound butter.  Green-corn (differentiated from dry corn; mine was fresh white corn) pudding as Fritz makes it for Nero Wolfe, with the addition of diced roasted red bell pepper which if I have I put in this dish, glazed roasted beets.  Bread.

Priscilla

[Andyzipp]

I use my grandmother's sauerkraut recipe, so it's an old Polish/Austrian method, from what I'm told.

I can also make my own pickles.

I'm ever-so resourceful.

[Wilfrid]

Andy, if you have the opportunity to describe your grandmother's approach to a cabbage, I'm sure we'd be interested.