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Dinner - The Polyphonic Food Blog


JPW

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yesterday, post T-day smorgasbord of leftovers, a potluck with friends contributing:

turkey and chicken

gravy

cranberry chutney

4 kinds of stuffing

2 kinds of sweet potatoes

carrots

Brussels sprouts with chestnuts

mashed potatoes

probably a few other things I've forgotten

pumpkin pie

pumpkin pie with bourbon

cherry pie

Dutch apple pie

apple pie

pumpkin cheesecake

but my favorite was biscuits I made with buttermilk from homemade cultured butter.  We ate them as an appetizer right out of the oven with the homemade butter, just standing around in the kitchen.

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We too had Thanksgiving leftovers.  The salad actually held up pretty well.  I'd been careful not to overdress it.

Crostini topped with Jasper Hill Oma cheese and leftover cranberry-grapefruit relish

Leftover salad of red butter lettuce, roasted yellow beets, cucumbers, radishes, avocados, toasted hazelnuts, truffled goat cheese, and apple cider vinaigrette
Leftover turkey
Leftover creamed pearl onions
Leftover rice pilaf
Leftover green beans with toasted slivered almonds
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I was going to make a molé sauce for the leftover Thanksgiving chicken (there's a lot) and maybe make some tortillas, then I realized that not only did I have a lot of leftover mushrooms and some leftover sauce from the chicken, there was still some homemade buttermilk, so I whipped up some biscuits and while they were baking turned the sauce into a thin gravy and reheated the chicken and mushrooms in it.  Then the whole thing got poured over hot biscuits and that was dinner.

Dessert was more biscuits, topped with homemade butter and Maryland B-grade maple syrup.

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A couple of nights of - an unexpected trip came up and we need to use the produce in the fridge - dinners.

Night before last, Savoy cabbage braised with spiced apple cider, a little butter,and Fuji apple

Roasted fingerling potatoes with parsley and Romano

Last night: "pho" with mushrooms, tofu, and rice noodles

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a tostada/nachos hybrid:  a warm tortilla and tortilla chips on top of which were layered homemade black beans, monterey jack, rajas de poblanos, marinated, grilled chicken thighs with salsa verde, lightly dressed lettuce, pico de gallo

2003 Altos de Luzon found in the back of the corner cupboard. The cork crumbled and had to be extracted with an ah-so, but the wine was only slightly bricked, had a fair amount of tannin, and was still huge and full of fruit.

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saag paneer except with leftover chicken instead of paneer, so I guess that makes it saag murgh

kashmiri baingan  - eggplant and apples with fennel seed.  Sounds like a really odd combination but boy was it tasty.  I used long, narrow, light purple eggplants found at the FM and a gold rush apple.

aged basmati rice

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leftover saag murgh

leftover kashmiri baingan

makkai parangikai kari (corn and white pumpkin in coconut milk, with cardamom, mustard seed, ginger, etc.; I used white sweet potatoes for the pumpkin)

freshly cooked aged basmati rice

last night's leftover rice became coconut rice pudding

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braised stuffed cabbage: savoy cabbage stuffed with ground bison (new vendor at Dupont Market, can't recall name), basmati rice, and spices, baked in a sweet-sour-spicy tomato sauce made with yellow carrot, parsnip, celery, quince, golden raisins, dried figs and aromatics

forelle pears poached in spiced red wine syrup served with creme fraiche

2005 Ch. Gros Caillou St. Emilion

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Left to my own devices this week, so last night was polenta topped with (freezer stash) caponata, penne caponata for lunch today.

Tonight: a giant arepa filled with scrambled eggs, manchego, and a hefty dose of chipotle hot sauce.  For some reason, breakfast food makes the winter feel less winter-y.

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Salad of red leaf lettuce, chopped fennel, chopped celery, and dill; sesame - soy - ginger vinaigrette

Seared Ahi tuna pepper steaks with sesame, soy, and sherry sauce and chives
Brown rice and rye berries
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Tuna salad with cole slaw, scallions, and avocado over gem lettuce

Pan-fried sirloin steak
Macaroni and cheese
 
The tuna salad was leftover from the ahi steaks.  The steaks didn't seem that big, but they were really thick.  The slaw, scallions, and avocado were left from the accompaniments to the fish tacos that I made with the leftovers Thursday night.  Also Thursday, leftover turkey soup and the last pieces (wing, drumstick) of the Thanksgiving turkey.
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Sunday night: grilled pork chops which were marinated in lemon and rosemary, mashed turnips, roasted acorn squash

Last night: Shabbas dinner on a Monday: roasted chicken, roasted potatoes, homemade Caesar salad with anchovies in the dressing and in the salad.

Dessert both nights were dark chocolate covered marshmallows from TJs.

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Pork larb

Shredded carrot salad

Leftover chili

A bit of mix-and-match there, but the chili recipe made a lot and was not terribly good.  I can't bear to throw out edible food, so, we're going to be eating over seasoned chili for quite a while.

I had a little bit of ground pork left from making the chili and decided to experiment with making larb.  I scanned several online recipes and had all of the ingredients, so went ahead and gave it a shot.  It came out pretty well. I even made the toasted rice.  Woo-hoo.  I have a ton of carrots, so I thought a Thai-inspired carrot salad would be nice alongside the larb.  It was a successful experiment.

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Pork larb

I also made Laap, but with chicken. I actually make laap about once a week. It's one of my "quick and easy" dishes.

Last night Laap Gai ลาบไà¸à¹ˆ (minced chicken salad), panang fak tong à¹à¸žà¸™à¸‡à¸œà¸±à¸à¸—อง (panang curry with pumpkin), Kai Jiew ไข่เจียว (Thai "omelet") with Siracha ศรีราชา sauce (Grand Mountain Brand, my new favorite), vegetables, Jasmine rice. Victory Golden Monkey.

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Leftover bamboo shoots with ground pork, a la Dunlop.

Started making rum cake for a potluck at work tomorrow, noticed small flecks in the batter. Hmmm....I was pretty sure I had eradicated the flour beetles from the flour bin..... wait, it was some kind of casing or insulation on the mixer motor (Sunbeam Mixmaster roughly circa 1990) that is now disintegrating and snowing down into the mixer bowl through the ventilation slots. Noooooooooo! I have been dreading the demise of this much beloved mixer for a long time, as I loathe the now-fashionable planetary mixers and the older rotating bowl mixers (my favorite) are hard to come by and seem to be of sketchy quality. Maybe I will end up switching to hand mixers only, my kitchen is tiny anyway.  Or maybe I will get adventurous and crack the top off and see if I can just pry the disintegrating substance off without killing the mixer, since otherwise it works fine.

Ended up tossing the entire cake batter (ugh, a whole box of butter was in that) and starting over, this time stuck using an immersion blender to sort-of-cream the butter. I don't think anyone will care how this one turns out once I put the rum sauce on it, at least....

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Tonight was Peruvian-inclined:

Roasted chicken with aji amarillo/green sauce

Causa

Green salad (radishes, cucumber, avocado, bacon, hard-boiled egg, extra cojita cheese from the green sauce; white balsamic-lime vinaigrette)

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Started making rum cake for a potluck at work tomorrow, noticed small flecks in the batter. Hmmm....I was pretty sure I had eradicated the flour beetles from the flour bin..... wait, it was some kind of casing or insulation on the mixer motor (Sunbeam Mixmaster roughly circa 1990) that is now disintegrating and snowing down into the mixer bowl through the ventilation slots. Noooooooooo! I have been dreading the demise of this much beloved mixer for a long time, as I loathe the now-fashionable planetary mixers and the older rotating bowl mixers (my favorite) are hard to come by and seem to be of sketchy quality.

oh, no!  I have a Sunbeam; though I do not loathe the planetary mixes (they have their uses), I much prefer to Sunbeam for some applications.

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Savoy cabbage sauteed in butter with linguine and scallions.

Was initially planning on making braised tofu knots, but after I put the flavorings in the electric skillet with the tofu knots, I saw that both the hoisin and the chile paste expired in 2012. I'm ok with opened containers that live in the fridge for about a year past the date, but decided that two years was over the line, especially since I don't remember how long ago I opened that hoisin and it is almost 2015. I think I will have to go through everything in the cabinets and fridge and then go on a spree at the asian mart...

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Last night I cooked for my neighbors who have been very kind to me lately.

Salad of romaine, grape tomatoes and blue cheese with a honey viniagrette

Roast pork loin brined in beer, braised in chicken stock with garlic and onions

Cranberry, apple, raspberry chutney

Dressing with sausage, celery, onion, poultry seasoning, etc. baked while pork cooked

Roasted green beans

Chocolate chip biscotti (last minute grocery store purchase from Giant Eagle. Yummy.)

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Savoy cabbage sauteed in butter with linguine and scallions.

Was initially planning on making braised tofu knots, but after I put the flavorings in the electric skillet with the tofu knots, I saw that both the hoisin and the chile paste expired in 2012. I'm ok with opened containers that live in the fridge for about a year past the date, but decided that two years was over the line, especially since I don't remember how long ago I opened that hoisin and it is almost 2015. I think I will have to go through everything in the cabinets and fridge and then go on a spree at the asian mart...

Tofu knots???

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Cooking for myself this week, I made two large pots of food and have been going back and forth between the two.  It's like flashing back to grad school. :huh:

Thai green curry with broccoli and mushrooms, served over jasmine rice.

Roasted sweet potato and chickpea "salad" in a tahini dressing, served warm.

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Tofu knots???

These are strips of tofu skin (like the skin that forms when you simmer milk) tied into knots and dried. The skin is also sold in sheets and various sizes of rolled up "sticks". I really like the texture of tofu skin, and they are great in soups and braised.

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tofu knots

What is considered a "planetary mixer?"

Like a Kitchen Aid, where the beater assembly moves and the bowl is stationary.  On old style mixers (like the Sunbeam) beaters rotate but but do not revolve, and the bowl sits atop a rotating platter.

Am I the only one who sees Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune on one side of the gym and Mercury, Venus, and Mars on the other, everyone looking awkward as some cheeseball music plays in the background and nobody dares dance?

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Salad of green gem lettuce, cucumbers, radishes, and homemade croutons; champagne-caper vinaigrette

Cheese and chile skillet cornbread
Cornmeal-crusted oysters with creamy salsa verde for dipping
Leftover causa
 
I added extra mayo to the green sauce left from several days ago to use as a dipping sauce for the fried oysters.  The sauce was good but very strong, and the extra mayo helped bring it down a bit so it didn't overwhelm the oysters.
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latkes fried in schmaltz, with a poached duck egg; served with creme fraiche and homemade applesauce.

Used the Serious Eats method (kind of).  No spattering (yay) but they came out rather heavy.  I still have trouble with frying.

I use my mom's recipe -- not fried in schmaltz-- but it calls for some baking powder, which helps to lighten the latkes and make them fluffy. What did you use as a binder? Try some unsalted matzo meal next time, if you used flour.

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Salad of green gem and red leaf lettuce, cucumber, radishes, carrot, and croutons; champagne-caper vinaigrette

Silken turnip soup
Cashew chicken over baby spinach
Roasted delicata squash
 
The soup recipe came from the Post's website.  It's adapted from The Gift of Southern Cooking, a book I keep thinking I should acquire.  The chicken idea came from a blog, with the chicken served over greens instead of rice.
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