Dinner - The Polyphonic Food Blog

[V.H.]

Puffy baked apple pancakes lots of cinnamon and some fresh whipped cream

Pan fried sausages

later that night, homemade baked char siu bao using some really terrific Cibola Farms pork shoulder

[zoramargolis]

Last night:

Eggplant casserole with three cheeses

I made marinara sauce with the remainder of the Toigo tomato seconds. Roasted the last of the red pepper seconds (noticing a theme here?) Salted and broiled an eggplant second. I made ricotta with some first quality whole milk from the Dupont market, and layered it with the eggplant, peppers, marinara sauce, and some mozzarella di bufala and Reggiano parmesan. Out of the oven, it was garnished with the last of last week's basil.

Garlic toast

2003 Corte Majoli Valpolicella Ripasso

[Xochitl10]

Hanbaagu* spaghetti: meat patty cooked in a tomatoey gravy, then served over spaghetti.

Cajun Kamikazes

*Not to be confused with hanbaagaa, the sandwich.

[monavano]

I've been doing a bit of "cooking therapy" this weekend. I made a chili with lots of vegetables, including mushrooms, zucchini, bell peppers and tomatoes. A fantastic loaf of challah bread turned into a decadent bread pudding.

[Xochitl10]

decadent bread pudding.

Again, I feel compelled to ask about international delivery options. That looks fantastic, monavano.

Last night's dinner:

Satoimo to ebi no agedango: deep-fried shrimp and taro root dumplings

Hourenso no ohitashi: parcooked spinach, steeped in a dashi/soy sauce stock and served with katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes)

Steamed rice

Miso soup with cotton tofu and fresh wakame seaweed

Rice-bran cucumber pickles

[zoramargolis]

Last night:

Baby romaine and heirloom tomato salad with blue cheese dressing

Applewood-smoke grilled, herb-brined pork chops

South Carolina mustard bbq sauce

Fresh lima beans with ham hock

Cheese grits

Spiced wine-poached seckel pears

2006 Rosenblum Paso Robles zinfandel

[V.H.]

Grilled Cibola buffalo flank steak with rosemary and garlic, broccoli sauteed with butter and fleur de sel, mac and cheese

For dessert, used up various brown bananas and made banana muffins with a generous fistful of Valrhona 61% disks thrown into the batter

[DanCole42]

Over the past week or so...

Pan seared scallops with smoky tomato lime mayo

Spicy couscous

Greasy burgers with smoked cheddar on butter toasted buns with shaved red onions and special sauce

Salt crusted fingerling potato "fries" with butter and sour cream

Banana smoothie

Herb crusted tilapia

Mushrooms florentine

Lots of pumpkin ale

A perfect omelet with butter and truffle salt - creamily runny in the middle and folded beautifully

Roasted bacon

Biscuits with apple, onion, and sage (guess how good these made my kitchen smell!)

...

Grease, cheese, mayo, butter, salt crust, sour cream, eggs, bacon...?

I think the healthiest thing I've eaten in the past week has been the pumpkin ale.

[zoramargolis]

Tonight:

Mediterranean mezze for a table-ful of mostly vegetarian college students

Oven-baked ratatouille

Baba ghanouj made with charcoal roasted eggplant

Hummous

Marinated fresh borlotti beans

Feta cheese with zaatar

Chile-marinated olives

Sliced tomatoes with mozzarella di bufala and basil

Spiced carrot puree with dukkah

Cucumbers in Total yogurt

Flat bread toasted with olive oil and zaatar

Just for us: Merguez (lamb) meatballs with minted yogurt

Italian plum crisp with vanilla creme fraiche

2007 Cono Sur Viognier

Otter Creek Oktoberfest

[aaronsinger]

Last night:

Smoothie with banana, strawberry, mango, orange juice, a little coconut sorbet, and a little chocolate sorbet.

YUM!

[Xochitl10]

Japanese-style mabo doufu (spicy tofu)

Steamed rice

Homemade cucumber and carrot pickles

[zoramargolis]

Oven-baked cauliflower in cheese sauce

Haricots verts with lemon

Mixed green salad with lemon vinaigrette

Apple tart with streusel topping

B&J's vanilla ice cream

[Xochitl10]

Beef tataki

Satoimo no tsuya ni -- taro root simmered in a dashi, soy sauce, mirin, sugar, and sake stock. It's supposed to be served with slivered yuzu peel, but I used sudachi peel.

Ichijiku no gomadare sarada -- fig and watercress salad with white sesame/miso/vinegar/soy sauce dressing

Miso soup with wakame seaweed and cotton tofu

Homemade carrot and cucumber pickles

Steamed rice

[porcupine]

Vegetable soup (fennel broth based) with the last of the garden tomatoes.

Fried green tomatoes

pain de campagne and Robusto cheese

cocktail of apple brandy, ginger liqueur, lemon juice, simple syrup, whiskey barrel bitters

I don't believe I've ever had fried green tomatoes. I dipped the slices in egg/milk, then cornmeal/flour/pepper, then fried them, then sprinkled with coarse salt. Some of the picked-green tomatoes had started to ripen just a bit; these tasted insipid and were mealy textured. "Big deal", I thought, "just another way for frugal people to use less-than-stellar produce." Then I fried slices of very firm and still utterly green tomato, and what a difference - tart and tangy and delicious piping hot right out of the skillet. Makes me wish I hadn't gotten rid of the tomato plants so soon.

[Anna Blume]

I don't believe I've ever had fried green tomatoes.

Isn't it wonderful to make something that so many people take for granted that you've never had before? I tried my first fried green tomato a couple of years ago when I made a point of picking up a couple unripe tomatoes at the market to see what the fuss was all about.

* * *

Lamb tagine w okra and quince

Paula Wolfert recommends eating this w a good dense bread instead of couscous or rice, so I thawed a thick slice of onion rye. Cracked a fresh walnut and ate a Seckel pear for dessert.

[DanCole42]

It was my wife's birthday, so all her favorite foods:

PERFECT mashed potatoes. This was my first time with a food mill. Amazing. Great texture, and no peeling required!!!

PERFECT chicken parmesan. Used prosecco as the leavening in the batter and my awesome smoky tomato sauce.

PERFECT chocolate lava cake with vanilla foam. Seriously delicious in all its triteness.

Note the congealed cheese on the bottom of the pan. Icky goodness.

[monavano]

Vegetable soup (fennel broth based) with the last of the garden tomatoes.

Fried green tomatoes

pain de campagne and Robusto cheese

cocktail of apple brandy, ginger liqueur, lemon juice, simple syrup, whiskey barrel bitters

I don't believe I've ever had fried green tomatoes. I dipped the slices in egg/milk, then cornmeal/flour/pepper, then fried them, then sprinkled with coarse salt. Some of the picked-green tomatoes had started to ripen just a bit; these tasted insipid and were mealy textured. "Big deal", I thought, "just another way for frugal people to use less-than-stellar produce." Then I fried slices of very firm and still utterly green tomato, and what a difference - tart and tangy and delicious piping hot right out of the skillet. Makes me wish I hadn't gotten rid of the tomato plants so soon.

I found it best to use the firmest green tomatoes you can find, and slice them thick so that they maintain a nice, meaty texture. Can you eleborate on your fennel and tomato soup? I made a similar soup last year, but found that I lost the fennel taste somewhere.

[porcupine]

I found it best to use the firmest green tomatoes you can find, and slice them thick so that they maintain a nice, meaty texture. Can you eleborate on your fennel and tomato soup? I made a similar soup last year, but found that I lost the fennel taste somewhere.

My basic quick soup is recipe is: defrost a jar of whatever is in the freezer (chicken stock, beef broth made from seconds, beef stock - whatever). Cook in olive oil until soft thick sliced onion, sliced carrot, sliced celery; add the liquid; from there go in any direction, like adding fennel or mushrooms or cabbage or corn and peas or potatoes or white beans; season as appropriate (fresh herbs, sherry, vermouth, bitters, garlic). Sometimes I soak dried mushrooms in some water, wring them out, and add the water to the pot. That's especially good in winter.

This time I had a big jar of fennel broth in the freezer, left over from a dinner party earlier this year. Not sure I remember how I made it, but probably I started with the veg stock recipe from Fields of Greens and added a lot of fennel. (That's a good recipe, by the way.) Knowing me, I bet I added a lot of mushrooms, too, for umami. Come to think of it, I was playing around with fennel in various forms trying to create something new, so I bet I had a lot of fennel scraps to put in the broth.

This soup had just onion, carrots, celery, a bit of potato, and tomatoes, with the dried mushroom water and fennel broth, and thyme, parsley, and sherry. The fennel taste was noticeable but mild.

Bet you could punch up the flavor with some fennel seed. I do that a lot - dried mushrooms with fresh, tomato paste with tomato. Doubling up/layering flavors seems to add some depth to a dish.

Hope that helps.

[zoramargolis]

Bet you could punch up the flavor with some fennel seed. I do that a lot - dried mushrooms with fresh, tomato paste with tomato. Doubling up/layering flavors seems to add some depth to a dish.

To really punch up the fennel/anise flavor, in addition to fennel seed, add a shot of Pernod or some other anise-flavored liquor.

[Xochitl10]

Kabocha, pork, shiitake and aburaage takikomi gohan.

[monavano]

Porcupine and Zora--thanks for your insight. I'm away right now, but am really looking forward to getting back into my kitchen and making these soups now that the brisk weather is here

[soapy]

Potato Leek Soup (Julia Child's recipe) and salad with red peppers and poppyseed dressing.

[Pat]

Pinto beans with salt pork and roasted hatch chiles

White Rice

Homemade corn tortillas

Baked spinach and eggs

The entire, lengthy story of the chiles: I was in NM near the end of the harvest. On my fourth day passing a chile vendor in a parking lot near my motel, finally someone was there. I bought a large bag of already roasted red hot chiles (which, to me, seemed dehydrated--rather than what I would consider roasted if I were doing it at home) and a bag of medium hot red chile powder. (I'd already bought a bag of medium hot green hatch chile powder elsewhere.) I wanted green chiles. I figured roasted either would produce the same as the red, which I didn't want, or something that required refrigeration/freezing. I still had 10 days until I'd be home. So...I bought half a bushel of raw hot hatch chiles. Mostly they were green, but some were red or red-green, and they got redder over time. They gave them to me in a big plastic bag, which I figured was going to be trouble. By the next day, I realized that I'd have some rotten peppers if I didn't work to prevent it, so I bought a corn husk covered laundry basket (walmart was out of bushel baskets for the season) and laid the peppers in that. I pulled the defective/rotting/broken ones out and kept them in the plastic until I figured out what to do.

I carried the laundry basket in my car for a week, periodically culling bad chiles. Then I got to Fort Worth, where I was staying with a friend. I used her oven to roast the chiles. It took 6 hours to roast, stem, seed, package and freeze half a bushel of peppers . I chopped and roasted the defective ones and salvaged what I could of them. The "good" chiles yielded one gallon freezer ziplock (with 6-8 saran-wrapped packets inside) of red/red-green and one of green. The defective ones yielded about a tennis ball-sized lump of pieces in a sandwich bag. I froze these overnight and packed them in my coolers* in the morning. I added a couple of cold beverage cans from the fridge to keep the one pack cold and my friend offered up a sad box of ancient spinach to add an ice pack to the other one. Fortunately, the next two motel nights, my rooms had a mini-fridge. The mini-freezers were just big enough to fit the (fairly) flat gallon ziplocks and sad lump of defective chiles. I packed them in ice from motel ice machines for travel during the day. They made it home just fine and are now in my freezer. The tennis ball-sized lump of chiles went into last night's beans, and the improbable spinach baked up just fine with milk and cream cheese as a nest for eggs.

*I was planning early in the trip to drive from Austin to west Texas with a friend who runs a small cafe in the middle of the oil fields. We planned to buy groceries to take back, so I brought a big cooler and two small ones. We packed the coolers with food from Central Market and bags of ice (they give the slivered stuff away free) and drove it back out to the grocery store wasteland of west Texas.

[Heather]

Pot roasted pig's head, from Fergus Henderson's Beyond Nose to Tail

Lacinato kale

Pan roasted fingerling potatoes

Ice cream.

[Sthitch]

Pork Belly Confit with tea scented lentils and Seckel pear salad. The earthy flavor of the lentils and the sweetness of the pears really cuts through the fat. Bonus is that I now have 2 quarts of rendered lard from the pork belly.

[Pat]

Chicken andouille sausages

Garlic bread

Twice-baked potatoes with proscuitto and smoked cheddar

Acorn squash with soy-maple-ginger glaze

[zoramargolis]

Arrived home at 6 tonight from Wilmington, NC after a week-long road trip to Asheville, Savannah, Pawley's Island, SC and Southport, NC. I put together a meal from a combination of what was in the fridge and farm stand purchases I'd gotten along the way:

Fritatta with yellow and green zucchini, poblano chile, South Carolina tomato and Spanish sheepmilk cheese

Baked fresh-dug SC sweet potatoes with NC farmstead butter

Roasted cauliflower

Otter Creek Oktoberfest

Other goodies from the road:

Green peanuts (to be brined and roasted)

Roasted peanuts

Boiled peanuts

Deep-fried peanuts (the best! eat them shell and all)

Country ham slices

Bacon

Corn

Sourwood honey

Maurice's BBQ Hot Pepper Sauce (I thought that Maurice's SC Mustard BBQ sauce was too sweet, although their 'que and hushpuppies were terrific. I prefer the SC mustard bbq sauce that I made from the recipe I got from Scott Johnston.)

Stone ground white grits

A really odd-looking yellow and green long-necked winter squash, varietal name unknown to the farm-stand owner.

[squidsdc]

Leftovers of a recipe that was in the Washington Post a few weeks ago for Subanik. Made and ate it last night with all chicken, since tenderloin is a bit pricey and we weren't sure how we'd like the recipe. The chicken was good, but I could see it needed another flavor. Tonite I added eggplant, and it was wonderful.

[giant shrimp]

farfalle with kasha and onions, from mark bittman's wednesday recipe.

i'm a one-stop shopper, so when i couldn't find chicken fat in whole foods i decided to substitute olive oil for sauteeing the onions, an option he suggests, pointing out that it just won't be the same. i doubt it was. the dish was easy to make and okay while watching a tobe hooper movie (eaten alive?) about a lunatic running a decrepit bayou hotel that not too many characters (including a hooker) were able to check out of, with a big croc screaming feed me the whole time from the swamp that comes right up to the front porch. i don't want to give anything away, but an anti-hero who lost the bottom half of one of his legs to the almost mythic reptile (i know it's not a foreleg, because that would make him a horse), is eventually totally devoured, and the prosthesis floats to the top of the scummy water.

the bottom line, i am willing to eat my groats, but without childhood memories to dredge up, i can think of lots of better ways to cook my bowties.

[Anna Blume]

i'm a one-stop shopper, so when i couldn't find chicken fat in whole foods...

Not sure you can get schmaltz anywhere around these parts.

Next time, consider picking up inexpensive thighs. Make sure there are carrots, onions and a celery stalk at home.

Fry the thighs skin side down in a hot cast iron skillet for 5-10 minutes until you render enough fat. Meanwhile, put on a pot of water (or chicken broth), cut up the usual vegetables, throw in parsley if you've got it and/or a teaspoon of tomato paste if you'd like. Season w salt. Simmer the thighs as you prepare, eat and wash up after dinner. Got yourself a quick broth or stock for meals later in the week.

[giant shrimp]

Not sure you can get schmaltz anywhere around these parts.

Next time, consider picking up inexpensive thighs. Make sure there are carrots, onions and a celery stalk at home.

Fry the thighs skin side down in a hot cast iron skillet for 5-10 minutes until you render enough fat. Meanwhile, put on a pot of water (or chicken broth), cut up the usual vegetables, throw in parsley if you've got it and/or a teaspoon of tomato paste if you'd like. Season w salt. Simmer the thighs as you prepare, eat and wash up after dinner. Got yourself a quick broth or stock for meals later in the week.

thanks for the information. I knew rendering the fat from chicken was an option, but i didn't want to bother with it. next time i really need chicken fat i will follow your advice.

[porcupine]

tea scented lentils

Recipe?

[Sthitch]

Recipe?

I don't really have a recipe, the only measuring was for the lentils (1 cup) and the liquid (about 1 1/2 cups chicken broth and 1/2 cup red wine). I brought the liquid to a boil, took it off the heat and dumped in about 3 tablespoons of loose leaf tea (for this I used orange pekoe – and if you want a smokey flavor lapsang souchong also works really well). I let that steep for about 10 minutes. While the tea was brewing in the broth, I softened a half a finely minced onion and a finely minced celery stalk in lard (hey I have two quarts of the stuff). Then added the lentils, and strained the broth into the legumes. I cooked it for about 40 minutes until the lentils were soft.

[zoramargolis]

thanks for the information. I knew rendering the fat from chicken was an option, but i didn't want to bother with it. next time i really need chicken fat i will follow your advice.

When you get a whole chicken, there is a walnut-sized lump of fat just inside the opening of the cavity that usually gets pulled out and discarded before cooking. Save up a few of them in the freezer, and then render them with some chicken skin and some onion, and you'll have schmaltz with gribines (cracklings) to make really traditional kasha mit varnishkes (buckwheat groats with bowties). Or schmaltz to slather on fresh rye with caraway seeds. That's real old country snacking.

I grew up eating kasha (usually without bowties). If my mother didn't have any schmaltz in the house, she would brown the kasha in butter before adding chicken broth--not kosher, obviously, but tasty nonetheless. Unfortunately, I can't make it because my husband and daughter do not like the taste of kasha, and I don't love it enough to make it just for myself.

[Pat]

Pork tenderloin sandwiches (w/lettuce and tomato) on English muffins (Thomas')

Cole Slaw (from Canales Deli@Eastern Market)

Potato chips (Utz)

[DanCole42]

Salt-crusted herbed tenderloin

Swiss chard with pine nuts, quatre épices, and crème fraîche

Now in my regular rotation.

[Pat]

Last night was the remainder of the pork tenderloin, which I had browned in chunks and then finished in the oven the same night I sliced off medallions to make sandwiches. The chunks of tenderloin were reheated with the leftover pinto beans, rice, and spinach from the other night. I also threw together a soup that was a cross between baked potato soup and French onion.

[DanCole42]

Sweet potato ravioli with sage cream, brown butter and prosciutto

With thanks to Thomas Keller.

[rkduggins]

Six-spiced short ribs with pan sauce

Wild mushroom mac 'n' cheese

Sauteed rainbow chard with red wine vinegar

[Pat]

Red leaf lettuce salad with tomato, cucumber, and blue cheese stuffed green olives

Beef brisket

Fresh lima beans (Eastern Shore)

[zoramargolis]

Last night:

Braised beef brisket--which had spent 5 days in a cooked wine marinade and was out-of-this-world delicious

Fricasseed chanterelles

Scalloped Yukon Gold potatoes

Brussels sprouts sauteed with garlic, golden raisins, pine nuts and lemon zest

2005 Joguet Chinon "Les Petites Roches"

[zoramargolis]

Herb-brined Eco-Friendly pork rib chops, charcoal-grilled with hickory smoke chips

South Carolina mustard bbq sauce

Buttered green beans

Artisan grits with cheese

Mashed sweet potatoes (leftovers)

2007 Viña do Burato Rebeira

[DanCole42]

Pan-roasted spatchcocked chicken with "autumn spice blend,"

More swiss chard with creme fraiche and pine nuts

Crusty country bread

Good gravy

Get it? "Good gravy!"

No?

[giant shrimp]

oriental chestnuts, shredded cabbage and shrimp.

this is one of the more successful weekly mark bittman recipes i've tried out of the new york times recently. each of the three main ingredients is sauteed successively in peanut oil and united at the end, with garlic, ginger, dark seasame oil, soy sauce and scallions coming into play at various stages. peeling chestnuts -- even just half a cup -- is always a pain; it's peeling off the inner skin that nearly defeats me, but they are almost worth the effort -- browned and a little crunchy.

he also has a delicious recipe for pears, roquefort cheese, walnuts and lettuce, and now is prime season for it. the cheese, unfortunately, is selling for $20 a pound at whole foods, though you only need about $7 worth.

this is also the right time of year for deborah madison's Winter Squash "Pancake" with Mozzarella and Sage. the trick is to keep browning the pancake or mashed squash in butter until it becomes browner and browner but not burnt. she suggests stirring it up each time you want to form a new surface to brown on the bottom of the pan; but repatting it into a pancake becomes progressively more difficult the longer your sautee the squash. the recipe is relatively fast, after you've softened the squash in the oven. (i was listening to garrison keillor the whole time -- "indian summer is like starting up a romance after your first heart attack.")

[cjsadler]

peeling chestnuts -- even just half a cup -- is always a pain; it's peeling off the inner skin that nearly defeats me, but they are almost worth the effort

I heard that peeled chestnuts are available cheap at the Asian supermarkets (Grand Mart, Lotte, etc). Haven't investigated yet, though.

[giant shrimp]

I heard that peeled chestnuts are available cheap at the Asian supermarkets (Grand Mart, Lotte, etc). Haven't investigated yet, though.

sounds like a smart alternative -- although you probably have fresher, moister, better-tasting chestnuts when you buy them now at the farmer's market. i think that's part of the reason they aren't easy to peel. i was told to keep them in a damp towel in the vegetable bin in the refrigerator and use them quickly. the bittman recipe is aimed at seasonality, by the way. i'm not the biggest fan of chestnuts, and have made soups with them that are too rich for me, but i thought they turned out really well this time.

[youngfood]

Fricasseed chanterelles

by chance, did you happen to find a good price on there somewhere?

[zoramargolis]

by chance, did you happen to find a good price on there somewhere?

Costco Pentagon City. This is the second year they have sold Canadian chanterelles. (I can't recall exactly what I paid, but it was around $8 a pound.) I found them in the cold produce room. I can't guarantee that they will still be there if you go, however.

[zoramargolis]

Last night:

Mixed green salad with lemon vinaigrette

Spatchcocked, herb-brine Eco-Friendly chicken, oven-roasted over

sweet potato, parsnip, fennel and onion wedges

Pan gravy

Roasted chanterelles

Braised Tuscan kale

2007 La Volcanique Cotes du Forez

[alan7147]

2007 La Volcanique Cotes du Forez

The Volcanique from Verdier-Logel rocks!! They do make another Forez that Bassin's used to sell, but the Volcqanique is the more terroir driven of the two. 100% Gamay from the Loire and grown in some of the highest vineyards in all of France. Another Addis winner. I order a case through Riley and I think he now carries in on the shelf.