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Dinner - The Polyphonic Food Blog


JPW

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I used unsalted matzo meal.  :-)  And really it was a mixture of schmalz and canola oil (didn't have enough schmaltz).

Last night, take two.  Better, still not great.

Do you shred or puree the potato? Try doing a mix of both. I shred all of the potatoes in the cuisinart with the grating blade. Then squeeze the shreds in a dishtowel to get out as much water as possible. Then take 1/3 of the shreds, and puree them with the egg, onion, matzo meal, baking powder and salt. Mix the puree with the remaining shreds.

dinner last night:

potato, leek, and cauliflower soup made with chicken broth in the pot that the schmaltz and gribenes had cooked in, without washing the pot. I sauteed the onion and leek in the chicken fat that remained in the pot, and used the soup to deglaze the layer of crusty, oniony fond left in the bottom from the gribenes. Oh, and there was some napa cabbage in there, too. I pureed it with a hand blender. Wow, was that delicious soup. We ate it with some German 100% rye pumpernickel.

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Last Sunday, sweetbreads.  One heart sweetbread from Fields of Athenry, half a pound total weight, at $6.99 a pound it cost $3.50.  Never made sweetbreads before, so spent a long time researching preparation.

Soaked for hours in cold salted water in the refrigerator, changing the water several times.  Lightly poached in salted water with a Meyer lemon squeezed in, not that it needed Meyer but that was what we had.  Cool until able to handle it, then remove membrane and extraneous matter.

Julia Child says that removing the membrane is "quite time consuming."  Darlin', if JULIA thinks it's time consuming, yours truly thought it was maddening.  But, it's Sunday, and I don't have anything better to do.  Put resulting pieces on a pile of paper towels stacked on a plate, cover with more paper towels, another plate, weight with a #2 can, someone said.  #2 can is 20 ounces, approximated with three cans of tuna.  Chill.

Salt.  Pepper. Dip in gluten free flour, then egg wash, then gluten free panko.  Saute in butter.  Put on paper towels, squeeze more Meyer lemon juice into the now browned butter, add capers.  Plate, top with pan sauce.

Actually, quite good.  I think gluten free breadcrumbs would be better than panko, but my husband liked the panko.

Would I make them again?  Hmmm.  Maybe.  I did like them, a lot, and doubt I can find anybody else willing to use gluten free breading, but taking off the membranes was TEDIOUS.  I used Joyce Chen scissors, which snip at the tip, not the base, and a crab knife, and it probably took me half an hour.

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a fabada-paella hybrid improvisation. slow-cooked sofrito of onion-garlic-tomato-roasted red pepper with cumin, pimenton and porcini powder nd a splash of red wine. gigante beans cooked in the pressure cooker with lots of aromatics. Spanish short grain rice. eco-friendly chorizo, steamed, browned, sliced. cauliflower, chopped into small pieces. boneless cooked chicken. all combined and moistened with sufficient bean cooking broth and chicken stock to cook the rice. baked in a moderate oven for 25 minutes or so. served with chopped Italian parsley.

comice pear and chocolate sea salt caramel

2011 La Montesa rioja

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Leftover Cobb salad

Creamy vegetable soup (kohlrabi, kale, corn, and delicata squash) with taleggio cheese crostini
Cheese and green chile tamales [Trader Joe's]
Guacamole and tortilla chips
 
I don't buy many of TJ's prepared foods, but the impulse-purchase tamales were pretty good.  The soup came from an assortment of leftover or wilting (in the case of the kale) vegetables that needed to be used.  There was also some excess cilantro in there.  Boxed chicken broth constituted most of the liquid, but I did add a little half and half.  It was pretty good for a "kitchen sink" kind of soup.
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Saturday was ikura oroshi.  I don't have access to a grater right now so the daikon was not as fine as it should have been.

Last night was clams in a homemade red sauce and TJ's dark chocolate covered marshmallows.  I didn't bother with pasta; in this case there was no need to waste the stomach space.

Tonight was stew, arugula salad, and roasted acorn squash.  We are still working through an absurd amount of squash from the fall CSA.  I'm done with squash.

DC's finest local H2O was enjoyed all three nights.

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When the idea of making tamales was raised, I quashed it due to the ungodly amount of time and energy that would take. However, I did agree to do a meal in a similar vein, which wouldn't require me to spend quite as much time on my feet in the kitchen. Mole negro de Oaxaca made from scratch would have been out of the question, but I did happen to have in my refrigerator a jar of Oaxacan mole paste from Guelaguetza, the wonderful Los Angeles restaurant. I made a quite delicious mole with the paste, homemade chicken stock and san marzano tomatoes. The recipe on the label suggested adding some Oaxacan chocolate, and I happened to have some in my pantry.

The turkey was purchased at The Organic Butcher of McLean, raised at a farm in Middleburg, VA. It was brined overnight in an herbed salt/sugar brine and smoked over charcoal with applewood chunks.

guacamole and chips

pico de gallo

applewood smoked turkey with mole negro de oaxaca

saffron rice

refried pinto beans made with duck fat

tortillas

port, stilton and kerrygold butter on baguette slices, walnuts, apple slices, clementine

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tonight was round 2 of the smoked turkey, this time with my bbq sauce

North Carolina style collard greens (directed by K: cooked with bacon, onion, garlic, brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, and Sriracha.) cooked until meltingly tender.

corn bread with butter and honey

pecan pie with whipped cream

fat tire

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smoked turkey, round four:

turkey pot pie, with onion, leek, carrot, celery, fennel, garbanzos, potatoes, roasted red pepper, and frozen peas

bechamel was made with 1/2 butter, 1/2 schmaltz, homemade chicken broth and Clear Creek Creamery whole milk, splash of dry marsala

pie crust made a la Canal House video, with whole egg was indeed easy to roll out

2013 Royal chenin blanc

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Leftover pot roast making a half-hearted effort at being molé but ending up more like Mexican sloppy joes [reheated small pieces of beef in a sauce made from a little onion, garlic, tomato sauce, chipotles en adobo, a bunch of different spices, sultanas], served on homemade corn tortillas with some cheddar cheese.  Not exactly good enough for company, but for a quick use of leftovers, kinda tasty.

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Red leaf and red butter lettuces, frisee, cucumber, radicchio, and red and white radishes; sesame-shiitake vinaigrette

Seared sesame tuna pepper steak
Leftover whole wheat orzo and gigande beans with roasted broccoli
Leftover roasted butternut squash and broccoli
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After a large lunch at Joe's Noodle House and an unexpected lengthy bookkeeping chore, I wasn't up for making any kind of formal NYE dinner. J announced a desire to make deviled eggs, his mother's NYE tradition. So I rummaged around for other bits in the refrigerator that would make a smorgasbord-type meal along with the bottle of Mumm's Napa Valley sparkling wine that was chilled and ready for the "festivities" such as they ever are with us. I found some dense, thin German pumpernickel that served as a worthy underpinning for some cream cheese and the Ducktrap smoked salmon that I hadn't gotten around to opening. I sprinkled the triangles with capers, meyer lemon juice, and slivered scallion, and wished I'd bought some fresh dill.

J insisted on following the stuffed egg recipe in his American Test Kitchen cook book, even though when he read out the ingredient list I told him that it sounded uninteresting and would need help. He threw up his hands when my prediction proved accurate and left me to enhance the yolk mixture (the ATK recipe called only for grain mustard, apple cider vinegar, and worcestershire sauce, s&p). I chopped up shallot, cornichons, capers, parsley and thyme (again wishing for some dill), added more mustard, a bit of horseradish, a few drops of hot sauce. Much tastier, he agreed.

A board with Vermont Creamery cultured butter, stilton, brie, taleggio, and P'tit Basque; some slices of Olli spicy salami, sliced cucumber, spicy olives, and grain mustard. A basket of baguette toasts and slices of Atwater fennel/fig bread.

It turned out to be a lovely way to snack and chat as we end the year and look forward to the many changes ahead in 2015.

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We had somewhat of a similar meal to the one Zora describes above.

Warm Roasted Fennel and White Bean Dip

Cava Spicy Garlic Hummus

Crudites, whole wheat pita triangles, multigrain baguette rounds
Cheese platter (Jasper Hill Oma, TJ's 1000 Day Gouda, goat round of unknown provenance, Perenzin Italian buffalo truffle from Costco)
Steamed shrimp with lemon and horseradish
Antipasto platter with sliced salami, roast beef, banana peppers, and marinated artichoke hearts
Hen broth with ditalini, parsley, and Parmesan
 
The roast beef was about the last of the Christmas roast.  The hen broth was made from the backs of Cornish Game Hens I spatchcocked for a post-Christmas meal.
 
The dip recipe came from Food 52 and was good but needed a little more zing.  It's possible my large bulb of fennel wasn't large enough.
 
Oh, and we had a cheap Spanish cava that I bought at Total Wine a few months ago and had never opened.
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I'm somewhat embarrassed by our rather (by comparison) meager showing for NYE dinner.  I would be more so, if we hadn't been eating Christmas leftovers up until last night, and that's with about 20 tamales stashed in the freezer.  We went with a simple Thai green curry with broccoli, water chestnuts, and tofu, and the above-mentioned bottle of Mumm.  Happy New Year!

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"Mexican minestrone": homemade chicken broth base; onion, leek, garlic, carrots, celery, cumin, coriander, Mexican oregano, ancho chile powder, allspice, tomatillos, roasted poblanos, potatoes, black beans

herb-brined eco-friendly pork chop, stovetop grilled and then baked in mole negro de oaxaca

homemade refried beans (leftover)

pico de gallo

"clean out the fridge" bread pudding made with various bits of baguette, fig bread, brioche, gingerbread, egg nog, whole milk that have been hanging around since Christmas.

DB Vienna lager

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Salad of red leaf lettuce, radicchio, frisee, watermelon radish, cucumber, celery, carrot, bacon, and hard-boiled egg; miso-ginger vinaigrette

Leftover pork tenderloin plus shiitake mushroom - sherry sauce
Leftover black-eyed peas with roasted cauliflower and brussels sprouts
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Salad of red leaf lettuce, radicchio, frisee, watermelon radish, cucumber, celery, carrot, bacon, and hard-boiled egg; miso-ginger vinaigrette

Leftover pork tenderloin plus shiitake mushroom - sherry sauce
Leftover black-eyed peas with roasted cauliflower and brussels sprouts

How were these?  I was thinking of buying seeds for this spring.

Breakfast for dinner with arepas and scrambled eggs.  Maybe if we all concentrate really hard, spring will come soon.

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The watermelon radishes were cool-looking. I liked them, though they didn't seem as peppery as other radishes.  If I had a garden, I'd say they'd be a good addition.

They're pretty cut in rounds, but I sliced them up in matchsticks for this salad.  I'd gotten them at the farmer's market a while ago, so I peeled the outsides, but they would have been fine scrubbed and unpeeled.

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Our New Year's dinner, a few days late due to unforeseen circumstances.  Gigante beans in an herbed tomato sauce, braised collards with hot sauce, and cornbread.  The collards were the best I've had outside of home grown.  I picked them up at Shoppers, of all places.

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Salad of red leaf lettuce, radicchio, frisee, watermelon radish, cucumber, celery, carrot, bacon, avocado and hard-boiled egg; meyer lemon vinaigrette

Roasted herbed chicken (Scarborough Fair!)

Rice pilaf

Steamed green beans with toasted walnuts

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celeriac soup with thin ribbons of sorrel and jamon serrano

BreadFurst baguette with homemade cultured butter

mulled apple cider and Christmas cookies (that had been stashed in the freezer) for dessert

Mindful of hillvalley's advice (thanks!) in the Kitchen 911 thread, I didn't use an apple in the soup, but rather used a small amount of apple cider, which worked really well.  What surprised me was how well the sorrel and ham didn't work; although the soup smelled pungent, it tasted fairly mild, and even the tiny amounts of sorrel and ham used as garnishes almost overwhelmed it.  Nonetheless, I might have a new favorite vegetable.

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