Dinner - The Polyphonic Food Blog

[ktmoomau]

On 7/18/2017 at 4:54 PM, astrid said:

Costco is currently selling a compact set also made by Oxo.  Really like it so far.

I looked at that for my tiny condo kitchen and wondered, other small ones, I have not had good experiences with.

[astrid]

It's Costco, so you could try it out and return it if you don't like it.  I will say that the optimal use is making zucchini noodles and it doesn't handle carrots or any other veggies so well.  I like it because it's sharp and stores safely and small.

[Pat]

Gazpacho
Crispy skin salmon
Leftover green beans

[astrid]

23 hours ago, astrid said:

It's Costco, so you could try it out and return it if you don't like it.  I will say that the optimal use is making zucchini noodles and it doesn't handle carrots or any other veggies so well.  I like it because it's sharp and stores safely and small.

Though it might be too small for a lot of applications, it was a tight fit for a large-ish, but nowhere near baseball bat size zucchini, I imagine it would be too small for potatoes, beets, etc.

Zucchini noodles are excellent tossed with sesame oil, fish sauce, red wine vinegar, and a dusting of Penzey's smoked paprika.

[dcandohio]

 Last night I made a Thai chicken curry using prepared curry paste and light coconut milk.  I served it over riced cauliflower, which I had stir fried in a bit of olive oil, sesame oil, and soy sauce. 

[Pat]

Thin baguette slices, buttered, with leftover salmon, sliced cheddar, and thin cucumber rounds.

[Pat]

Heirloom tomato stuffed with salmon salad (leftover salmon, mayo, horseradish mustard)
Pecan brownie

 

[ktmoomau]

Sunday night I made garden rolls from Charles Pham's cookbook and I followed the recipe 85% (didn't have the pork, so used ground pork, didn't make the homemade mayo, used Duke's and fried shallots).  We also had some pan fried dumplings.  Very tasty, although I kept getting tears in my paper.  When you have the ingredients for these, they are such a great easy dinner.

[Pat]

Salad (romaine, radicchio, cucumber, radishes, hard-boiled eggs, tomato, chickpeas, red bell pepper, diced cheddar; champagne-caper vinaigrette)
Stir-fried marinated tofu, broccoli, peanuts, and brown rice-millet ramen, with marinating liquid (soy sauce, etc.) and peanut butter

 

[ktmoomau]

Tuesday night was chicken breasts marinated with a Tuscan dry rub, roasted Brussels sprouts, leeks and daikon wiht some crumbled blue cheese and a leftover corn muffin.

That paved the way for Wednesday night- Chicken breast sandwich on brioche bun with pepperjack cheese melted until very gooey with Brussels sprouts and Duke's mayo.  As I was preparing this sandwich I was snacking on Townhouse olive oil and rosemary crackers and pepperjack cheese which I topped with half a brussel sprout- this was a MUCH better snack than you would imagine, the flavors went together really well.  It isn't pretty enough to serve at a party, but it is a darn tasty combination that I will remember.

[Katya4me]

I picked up 2 massive carrots and 1 zucchini to go with some chicken breasts that I defrosted. Cubed up the chicken, spiralized the veggies, and found 2 bell peppers to add as well.  Stir fried it all up and tossed a quick sauce together of sweet rice wine, fish sauce, ginger, garlic and soy sauce.   Tasted great and had enough leftovers for lunch and dinner today.

[Pat]

Fritos and spicy beef queso.  Yeah, not the healthiest dinner. But it was good. The queso was from a recipe intended to go with bean quesadillas, but I just used it as a dip.  It was a fairly standard roux  made with cheddar and milk, with cooked ground beef added in at the end along with a can of Ro-tel.

[DonRocks]

4 minutes ago, Pat said:

Fritos and spicy beef queso.  Yeah, not the healthiest dinner. But it was good. The queso was from a recipe intended to go with bean quesadillas, but I just used it as a dip.  It was a fairly standard roux  made with cheddar and milk, with cooked ground beef added in at the end along with a can of Ro-tel.

Not sure about the Fritos (though people love them), but this sounds *good*.

[TrelayneNYC]

Dinner menu for August 3, 2017:

Spaghetti with white clam sauce
Broccoli with olive oil, salt and pepper
Italian fruit salad

[dcandohio]

Last night I put some delicious Italian sausage (from a tiny little grocery store in New Orleans,  carried frozen in my luggage) on the grill.  The grills at my condo are used by many people, some of whom are not experienced and they are often nonfunctional… But last night everything was perfect.  I got some sear on the casing of the sausage, but the inside was still juicy.  I made a pasta salad with penne, and lots of chopped zucchini, red pepper, tomatoes, roasted corn, and spinach.  I tossed it in a vinaigrette made with tons of basil.  I also served store-bought bread sticks with marinara from a jar that I doctored up with a bit of wine, herbs, and diced pepperoni.

[TrelayneNYC]

Lots of cooking today. 

Slow-roasted cherry tomatoes.

Some will be for tomorrow's breakfast, folded into scrambled eggs with crème fraîche; the rest will be for either crostini or with pasta.

Stufato di verdure, served with pesto.

Roasted figs.

These will be part of tomorrow's breakfast, served over Greek yogurt.

Split 1 lb. figs in half, then top with a mixture of: red wine vinegar, pinot noir, extra-virgin olive oil, wildflower honey, sea salt and black pepper. Roast for 20 minutes in a pre-heated 375 F oven.

[Pat]

Last night I made a kind of Italian version of shakshuka. The recipe was fairly labor-intensive, so I just served it with chicken legs from a Whole Foods rotisserie chicken that I had in the refrigerator and a quick medley of buttered orzo with some leftover vegetables (green peas, broccoli, and cauliflower), grated Parmesan,  and lots of black pepper.  

[Katya4me]

Last night was jerk salmon grilled with this recipe cut in half: https://www.washingtonpost.com/recipes/grilled-rum-jerk-salmon-with-agave-kissed-pineapples/12862/?utm_term=.2544915b9692

I charred some corn on the grill, cut the kernels off, then made zoodles with an avocado pesto sauce to go with it.

 

[Pat]

Salad plate (over romaine): giant heirloom tomato stuffed with chicken salad; vinaigrette-marinated green beans with minced shallots; halved hard-boiled eggs topped with excess marinade and shallots; and (separate plate) crostini and cottage cheese

[eatruneat]

Last weekend: Vietnamese grilled pork (thit nuong) using this family recipe. @MichaelBDC and I went all out for this, special ordering pork from the farmers market, pickling carrots and daikon (putting the mandolin to good use), making nuoc cham, and whipping up some scallion oil. The extra effort was worth it. Sunday's dinner was the grilled pork served on top of some noodles with all the accompaniments. Leftover pork and pickled veggies were re purposed into a banh mi sandwich a few days later. Finally substituted rice for the vermicelli noodles for a homey weeknight meal.

This weekend: Steak Ssam from Momofuku. A really easy recipe and great for summer.

 

[Pat]

Last night was a big salad (romaine, radicchio, cucumber, radishes, chickpeas, homemade croutons, and champagne caper vinaigrette); leftover orzo with peas, broccoli, and cauliflower; and, lamb rib chops with lime sauce. The lamb is from a Post recipe, and I've made the chop part before. Last night was the first time trying the sauce, and it came out way too thin. Beyond that, I wasn't thrilled with the way it tasted. The technique for cooking the lamb is great, though.

[TrelayneNYC]

We had leftover cioppino and later, a peach galette for dessert.

[Pat]

Last night: BLT on rye. Previously:  roasted mushrooms over zucchini ribbons, with shredded Parmesan and homemade whole wheat breadcrumbs.

[Katya4me]

On 8/11/2017 at 11:28 AM, TrelayneNYC said:

We had leftover cioppino and later, a peach galette for dessert.

This looks fantastic.

[TrelayneNYC]

Thanks!

This was last night's:

Shrimp scampi

Potatoes, green beans and wax beans with pesto Genovese

Cantaloupe melon and leftover peach galette for dessert

[TrelayneNYC]

I had asked B to make some chili this past weekend -- which was a success -- and I found out later that he had used a Cook's Illustrated recipe.

I suppose I'll have to revisit my dislike of that magazine now.

Oh, this was tonight's dessert:  a fig galette that had a bit of frangipane spread beneath the fruit.

[dcandohio]

Chicken wings (steamed, then refrigerated, then tossed in sauce, then grilled)

Fingerling potatoes cooked in a foil packet on the grill

Bagged Asian salad

[curls]

@TrelayneNYC that galette looks delicious. If you don't mind sharing, where did you find the figs?

[TrelayneNYC]

7 hours ago, curls said:

@TrelayneNYC that galette looks delicious. If you don't mind sharing, where did you find the figs?

Was from the Ferry Building farmers' market this past Saturday.

They were going for 1 lb./$5.50.

[Pat]

Pan-seared wild Coho salmon
Corn on the cob

 

[curls]

Hamburgers on the gas grill, corn on the cob, and homemade yellow cake with chocolate frosting.

[TrelayneNYC]

Broiled cod with anchovy-raisin-parsley salsa
Creamed corn

The salsa saved the meal from being a dinner straight out of the 1950s. Plates were almost monochromatic.

BTW, the corn is from a recipe from "Small Victories" by Julia Turshen, page 104. Takes 15 minutes from start to finish and has three ingredients not counting salt and pepper. B remarked, "It's better than the canned version!"

[eatruneat]

A very lemony dinner for @MichaelBDC and me last night. Dusted off Ad Hoc at Home and made Thomas Keller's brined pork tenderloin. Skipped the preserved lemons for fresh ones. Sides were roasted potatoes with garlic, lemon, and oregano and sauteed green beans (with a squeeze of lemon juice). 

[ktmoomau]

Last week I wasn't cooking as much, we were just fairly busy, but I did make:

Stir fried rice noodles with shrimp, daikon, snow peas with a peanut sauce that I diluted down with some beef stock into more of a pasta sauce than dipping sauce.

[Pat]

Leftover wild rice, onions/carrots/celery/tomato, raisins, and shredded white meat chicken.

[TrelayneNYC]

We had leftovers for dinner tonight:

kare-kare (oxtails with eggplant and bok choy in peanut sauce) and bagoong (fried garlic and fermented shrimp paste)
adobo (chicken and pork with vinegar, garlic and soy sauce)
fagiolini e pomodoro (green beans braised in tomato sauce)
creamed corn (corn cooked with butter, salt and cream)
 

Then I prepared the following for a dinner party for three:

 

Beef and pork meatballs (breadcrumbs, milk, Italian parsley, mint, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, nutmeg, egg, beef, pork).

The meatballs were baked instead of fried and will be braised in a tomato sauce tomorrow afternoon.

I have made these plenty of times before and prefer baking them instead of frying. They're lighter and there's not as much mess; can't beat that.

Olive oil cake with almonds, pine nuts and Cara Cara oranges

 

[Pat]

Yesterday I made a variation on tabbouleh that turned out well: bulgur, diced tomato, diced peach, parsley, scallion and citrus vinaigrette.  Served topped with toasted pine nuts. The dressing seemed to be lacking just a little something, so I drizzled in some white balsamic vinegar. That did it.  

[ktmoomau]

On 8/22/2017 at 10:59 PM, TrelayneNYC said:

We had leftovers for dinner tonight:

kare-kare (oxtails with eggplant and bok choy in peanut sauce) and bagoong (fried garlic and fermented shrimp paste)
adobo (chicken and pork with vinegar, garlic and soy sauce)
fagiolini e pomodoro (green beans braised in tomato sauce)
creamed corn (corn cooked with butter, salt and cream)
 

Then I prepared the following for a dinner party for three:

 

Beef and pork meatballs (breadcrumbs, milk, Italian parsley, mint, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, nutmeg, egg, beef, pork).

The meatballs were baked instead of fried and will be braised in a tomato sauce tomorrow afternoon.

I have made these plenty of times before and prefer baking them instead of frying. They're lighter and there's not as much mess; can't beat that.

Olive oil cake with almonds, pine nuts and Cara Cara oranges

 

Did the cake use citrus juice?  If so, would you mind sharing the recipe?  I have some citrus I need to use and was thinking of doing a cake for my family reunion next weekend.

[ktmoomau]

This week Matt hasn't felt great, and I have been trying to use things up in the freezer, so it's been a weird food week for us.  And I keep forgetting to put this roast I have in the crock pot and I forgot again today.  I can't forget tomorrow, ahhh.  I had leftover pasta salad from last weekend, so we have had roast chicken marinated in rendezvous rub with sauteed squash and pasta salad.  This week I also made Italian sausages with roasted veggies and potatoes.  Last night was chicken tacos and frozen yogurt with fresh blackberries.

[TrelayneNYC]

2 hours ago, ktmoomau said:

Did the cake use citrus juice?  If so, would you mind sharing the recipe?  I have some citrus I need to use and was thinking of doing a cake for my family reunion next weekend.

Hi ktmoomau -- 

Yes, that's fresh Cara Cara orange juice that's pictured in one of the photos. There's about 1/4 cup juice. I had measured some olive oil in the measuring cup beforehand, then remembered that last item.

Recipe is from Small Victories, pages 104 229-230. I added pine nuts which she doesn't use in the original recipe; it turned out fine.

This was last night's:

Dinner party for three for August 23, 2017:

Meatballs and tomato sauce
Insalata cruda e cotta (salad of raw and cooked vegetables)
Olive oil cake with almonds, pine nuts and Cara Cara orange
Cabernet sauvignon
Coffee, herb tea

[Pat]

Loaded stuffed baked potato and jalapeño poppers. Not the healthiest foods, but I made them myself

[TrelayneNYC]

For dinner tonight....

Roast pork loin stuffed with olives and herbs
Steamed broccoli dressed with California extra-virgin olive oil, sea salt and black pepper
Pflaumenkuchen (German plum cake), made with Flavor King pluots

 

[TrelayneNYC]

The roast pork loin and plum cake turned out really well.

Roast pork is from A Recipe for Cooking, pages 183-185. The recipe contains an error: total roasting time should be until a meat thermometer registers 160 F when inserted. That's clearly going to be more than 20 minutes.

Plum cake is from The Art of Simple Food II, page 258.

I'm teaching myself certain things which I didn't know before, like cooking meat and baking. Next stop: bread. I might attempt challah next weekend. We'll see.

[Pat]

Last night
Sourdough whole wheat bread; seasoned extra virgin olive oil or butter
Salad of romaine, napa cabbage, radicchio, romaine, bell pepper, hard-boiled eggs, chickpeas, radishes, avocado; balsamic-honey vinaigrette
Leftover creamed spinach and pork sausage fettuccine

The cabbage had been in the crisper quite some time and wasn't in the finest shape. It tasted extra cabbage-y. I realized this after mixing it with other salad ingredients, so I added honey to the balsamic vinaigrette to try to neutralize this. The cabbage was more muted in the end, and I don't know if it was the sweetness of the dressing that did it or if it got lost in the many different types of items in the salad.

I had originally made the pasta dish Tuesday and didn't like it all that much. In fact I thought the recipe (from a cookbook I'd been considering buying) was a fail.  I served more of it last night and, while I still didn't love it, it seemed to benefit from some time in the refrigerator and reheating. My husband liked it quite a lot, though. He wasn't home when I originally prepared it, and I'd been wondering what I was going to do with all the leftovers of a dish I didn't care for. Due to the hurricane, he made an unexpected trip home, and now the way too much food I'd prepared at the beginning of the week is getting eaten.

 

 

[Pat]

After hearing some friends talk it up, I tried the reverse sear method of cooking thick ribeye steaks last night.  It worked fairly well, except I had trouble getting the steaks up the last 10 degrees or so in the oven, and checking them multiple times just prolonged this. It also took a lot longer than doing it by searing first.  The steak came out really moist and tender, though, almost buttery, and a good medium rare. We each ate about half a steak. I cooked up a whole 3-pack of boneless ribeyes from Costco and will be using the remainder in salads and probably tacos this week. 

Along with the steak, we had more of the salad from the previous night, steamed broccoli, baked potato (we split one) with ricotta and pepper, and buttered bi-color corn on the cob.

[dcandohio]

I am back to cooking after a vacation during which I ate like a teenager.  Last night I made a fish curry which I served over cauliflower "rice."  The salad was a raita inspired cucumber and cantaloupe mix with a yogurt dressing. Very refreshing against the spicy curry. 

[ktmoomau]

Friday I remembered to put the roast in the crock pot with a morrocan simmer sauce someone gave me, potatoes, carrots and onions.  I took it out of the crock pot and reduced the sauce on the stove adding some peppers to the mix.  I attempted homemade pita bread, but either my flour, yeast or both were old as it didn't rise like it should, they turned out to be more like hamburger buns.  I will try again this week with the homemade pita.

Yesterday friends were making pizza on their green egg, so we brought a cucumber, tomato and shallot salad.  I also made homemade croutons for my office and salsa from a Rick Bayless recipe, but I am not sure that I love it, it's fine, but I might make another this week.

[dracisk]

Grilled lemon yogurt chicken and raw shredded Brussels sprouts with lemon and oil (all made by my husband). We ate the chicken in tortillas with the shredded Brussels sprouts as a sort of topping. Delicious! Even my 3-year-old, who's going through a picky phase, liked the chicken.

 

[Pat]

Semi-homemade chicken noodle soup (Do I have to put a ^TM in there?); wholewheat sourdough toast; leftover jalapeño poppers; and, sliced leftover ribeye steak over leftover salad with balsamic-honey vinaigrette

I used the last of some boxed broth and a full quart of boxed stock to make the soup. I stripped the meat off the last remaining cooked chicken breast in the refrigerator, shredded it, and simmered the bones (and a little of the skin) in the broth for a while. After draining that, I added the broth to sautéed onion, carrot, celery, and garlic, poured in the stock and a big handful of parsley and simmered for maybe an hour. Then I added some very fine egg noodles for a few minutes, and had soup.

[Pat]

We had steak tacos made from sliced leftover ribeye last night, with lots of toppings to accompany: salsa of fresh tomato, corn, scallion, and jalapeño; black beans (canned) and lime juice; sliced radishes; shredded romaine; cheddar and colby jack cheeses; sour cream; Cholula sauce; and, corn and flour tortillas.  There's enough left for at least one more taco meal.