Dinner - The Polyphonic Food Blog

[deangold]

Shio Koji chicken breast {detailed description of the chicken prep & cooking process}

Romanesco w/parm, champagne vinegar drizzle, and sage & walnut pesto

[Pat]

Fun with leftovers last night.

Lentil - tomato soup
Roasted yellow and baby red beet salad with avocado, fresh mandarin sections, fresh mint, Marcona almonds, and feta; mimosa vinaigrette
Tiny lamb meatballs and spinach
Yogurt sauce
TJ's cauliflower tabbouleh

Plus, whole wheat naan and butter

I was particularly impressed with the salad I put together. It looked beautiful plated.

[Pat]

Leftover lentil - tomato soup
Whole wheat naan
Leftover meatloaf
Leftover peas with butter and mint
Roasted tiny potatoes and orange bell pepper strips
 

[Pat]

Baked Huevos Rancheros
Chicken tacos (corn tortillas, salsa verde, tomatoes, shredded Monterey Jack, cilantro)
Leftover mashed sweet potatoes
Leftover refried beans

I had come across the baked huevos rancheros recipe a while ago and was really intrigued by it. I made 2 small Le Creuset ramekins of it, just large enough for one egg in the middle, instead of doing a full-sized version. I did make a full batch of the sauce, which was quick and very good, so I've got to find something else to do with that. This was wonderful. I would totally make it again. Highly recommend.

[deangold]

Friday:

Veggie soup flavored with pancetta & prosciutto, parmigiano. Romanesco, onion, leek etc. 

Saturday Lunch:

Pork Belly pan fried till crispy, served w/fermented mustard & homemade sauerkraut.

Saturday Dinner:

The koji marinated chicken breast which was other worldly. I took koji rice and ground it to a powder and then coated the breasts and left them for 3 or 4 days in the refrigerator. Took a pan and tossed some blanched brussels sprouts in the pan and let them pan roast util they started to pick up some browning. Then increased the heat and put the breasts in seasoning with black cumin, spice rub, salt & pepper. The chicken texture was smooth and homogeneous, instead of stringy at all. The flavors had a bit of funk and a bit of sweetness. The chicken flavor was magnified. The sprouts picked up a nice roasted edge and complemented the chicken well. The bitter of the sprouts a perfect foil for the sweetness of the chicken.

Perfect Manhattan: Old Overholt, Cocchi Rosa and Americano, Peychauds Barrel Aged aromatic bitters and Bittermen's Orange Citrate Cream. Garnished with 2 Luxardo cherries. 

Wine: Illuminati Pecorino which was a bit light for the chicken. 

[Pat]

23 hours ago, Pat said:

I did make a full batch of the sauce, which was quick and very good, so I've got to find something else to do with that.

I made a quick chicken tortilla soup for lunch yesterday to use the last of the shredded chicken I had. I started with the last of the poaching liquid from when I first made the chicken, a little bit of broth base since the liquid was pretty weak, and then added some of the ranchero tomato sauce. Since the sauce had onion, garlic, and bell and jalapeno peppers, I made sure to scoop some of those into the soup. Added the chicken for the last bit of cooking. I grabbed some excess grated cheese from making the tacos, fried up the last couple tortillas in strips for the top of the soup, and voila, a good lunch soup. Off topic for the dinner thread, but that's what I did with some of the leftover ranchero sauce. 🙃

Last night we had the last of the turkey scaloppini with cranberry sauce. Also made a pasta dish from a recipe that had kind of fall flavors. It was spaghetti with butternut squash and a maple/orange - sage oil sauce.

[Pat]

Iceberg lettuce and radicchio, radishes, shredded monterey jack cheese and shaved Parmesan; mimosa vinaigrette
London broil a la James Beard
Leftover tiny roasted potatoes and bell pepper strips
Steamed broccoli

[ktmoomau]

Last week was a big batch of beef vegetable soup, with beef roast that I cooked in the instant pot with some beef broth, and then once easy to cut/shred, I added to a dutch oven with some vegetables from the freezer- corn, peas, green beans, limas and crushed tomatoes.  Bay leaf, oregano, a little seasoned salt that I am trying to use up, and pepper.  Hot sauce and saltines on the side.

Last night was ground turkey, bell pepper and onion stuffed enchilladas with red chile sauce and cheese.  Served with a can of Trader Joes Cuban style black beans (which I really like as they seem a bit softer from the can and are a bit easier to digest) and guacamole.

Tonight will be tamales that I defrosted from the freezer. And then a reckoning of sorts for what I want to cook going forward.  The fridge is a little empty, the pantry has a lot of items, but not full meals, I kind of need to do ingredient cull. 

[deangold]

A long day of shopping ended at Lotte Plaza at Braddock and 495. I picked up some seafood mushrroms {they look like enoki on steroids, no fish flavor at all} and king trumpets. They have a good fish department and I found fresh conch and fresh 10/20 scallops. I had also bought a lot of greens and stuff at the farmer's market and we had a wide variety of choices.

Once home, I made a soup of dashi, the two kinds of mushrooms, some silken tofu. the outer leaves from trimming brussels sprouts, a few leaves of Tokyo bekana, one mall harukei turnip and half of the Korean cuke {from Shenandoah seasonals} and the last third of the jalapeno. By mistake, instead of salting the conch boiling liquid, I salted the dash stock but it was not too salty at all. I finished the soup with sesame oil, persimmon vinegar & a drop of soy & sansho pepper. One trick I used with the tofu {thanks to a tip from Tabi eats on YouTube was to boil the tofu in salted water for 1 minute and then drain. It really improves the flavor.

I made a lime, jalapeno & fermented red onion ceviche with the scallop. It needed a surprosing bit of salt to bring out flavor but was very nice

The conch came with a recommendation to cook it in boiling water not too long. A look on google led to try 3 minutes of boiling followed by 2 of soaking in the hot water, then being taken and sliced. At this point, the sliced were incredibly tough and I was regretting not making a conch fritter. But I had an idea and I tossed the slices in 1 Tbsp shio koji, juice of one lemon, half a Korean cuke sliced, a little jalapeno, lots of salt & pepper. We let it sit for 20 minuted while we are our first course soup. When we came back to it, time, the marinade, the shio koji or a convex combination of the three had rendered the conch firm without a crunch. It has a briny sweet flavor that was mild yet addicting. We used a slice of seylou bread to soak up every drop. 

Drink: Hardywood West Coast style IPA {very eh beer from a brewery I have heard so much good about} and a can of Solace Hops Out IPA which was lemony, full body and quite fine. It is also a session IPA with 4.5% abv.}Solace is probably my favorite local brewer these days and I have a four pack of their Juicy Lucy DIPA in the fridge.

[Smita Nordwall]

Please tell me more about the fermented red onion. 

 

[deangold]

18 hours ago, Smita Nordwall said:

Please tell me more about the fermented red onion. 

One of my lesser efforts in the lactofermentation departments. Sliced onion into half rings, made a brine of 5% salt by weight using a sea salt. I used peppercorns, red chile flakes, rosemary The fermentation lasted about a week in a ball jar with a fermentation lock lid. Then put a regular lid on and put it in the refrigeration. The result was not as sour and funky as other lactofementations. The onions have a nice crunch but not much zing. Sometimes lactofermented pickles develop in the fridge so I am not using them much and waiting.

These were local farm red onions. They may have a different sugar content from commercial onions.  I am thinking of using some shio koji in the brine. That would help breakdown carbs in the onions to sugar. 

I could retry the fermentation with 3% brine, but I have taken to 5% almost exclusively. The last factor to consider is out kitchen where I leave the fermentations is a little on the cool side: 68 degrees unless I have the oven or a big pot of liquids on. Maybe at a higher ambient temperature I would get a more interesting result. But this is the temperature I did my sauerkraut, kimchi and many batches of giardinera at and they all came out spectacular. 

My favorite way to pickle onions is to use a good quality commercial grade balsamico and just cover the onions about 3/4 and leave them on the counter for a day or 2.  They keep forever in the fridge but the onions do get softer over time. This is what we used at the Grotto. 

[Pat]

We had an almost vegetarian meal last night. I contemplated omitting bacon so it would have been but decided to go ahead with the bacon as a real small part of the meal. I've been discovering an increasing number of our meals are vegetarian or vegan after the fact lately without planning it that way. With this one it occurred to me mid-preparation.

Salad of red leaf lettuce, radishes, cucumber, and tomato; Bolthouse Farms Avocado Green Goddess Dressing
Vegetable soup (leeks, carrots, celery, garlic, canned diced tomatoes, frozen corn, dried oregano and basil; s + p, smoked paprika, and boxed vegetable broth diluted with an equal amount of water)
Fried Kasia's potato and cheese pierogies; sour cream; shaved Fontina cheese; crumbled bacon

I unearthed the pierogies from the freezer and defrosted them. I haven't bought these at Costco in quite a while. They come in a three-pack, which is way too many to eat without freezing some, and then they end up lost in the freezer. I saved about a tablespoon of bacon drippings to use for frying the pierogies in lieu of butter. I rarely cook anything in bacon fat any more and miss that sometimes 🤨.

[deangold]

Monday: Pasta w/tomato, onion & garlic sauce. Salas w/greens from Spring Valley; Alcesti Frappato

Tuesday: Garner produce kabocha squash twice baked, glazed w/sesame oil, soy, spices; local pork loin marinated in soy, sesame oil, crusted with black peppercorn, toasted black cumin. 
Negroni: Amaro di Sirene Don Ciccio, Bombay Sapphire; Cocchi Rosa, Bitter truth lemon bitters, Biterman orange citrate bitters; last of the Frappato.

[Pat]

Leftover vegetable soup
Spinach fettuccine with cream sauce, Parmesan, and peas

[dcandohio]

I riffed on a recipe that has been floating around on Facebook:easy “dumpling” soup. The dumplings are really the frozen mini chicken cilantro wontons from Trader Joe’s. This product is low fat and low sodium, and the dumplings themselves are quite tasty.  
I simmered good quality chicken stock with some chunks of ginger and toes of garlic until the broth was infused, and then removed the big pieces. I added a splash of low sodium soy sauce, some sesame oil, and some hot chili oil. Then I threw in some leftover cabbage, sliced thinly, and when that started to get soft, I added in a bunch of chopped baby bok choy. When the bok choy was almost cooked, I added the dumplings, which take only a minute or two to heat through. I only wish I had cilantro for garnish, but it was still really tasty. 

[Pat]

I reheated the last half dozen slices of London broil for dinner last night. It's always hard to do that without overcooking. I seem to try a different method every time. I made a very small amount of sauce from Worcestershire and horseradish, which I drizzled over the meat on a heavy piece of foil. Then I wrapped up the packet and stuck it in a the oven (which was on at 350) for 7 minutes. (Not a magic number, just seemed about the right amount of time and it took it to the half hour exactly on the clock.) The meat was nicely warmed through and medium rare, with a little juiciness from the added sauce. Success!

This was served with leftover buttered English peas and scalloped potatoes (the reason the oven was on) and a salad of red leaf lettuce, cucumber, tomato, red bell pepper, feta, pepperoncini, and kalamata olives with avocado green goddess dressing.

The potatoes came about because I wanted to use the last of a bottle of 2% milk I'd bought for something or other and decided to make a bechamel. I only had two medium russets, so I also grabbed a large sweet potato. I parboiled them for 10 minutes, then sliced and assembled the casserole with the bechamel, topped with breadcrumbs and dots of butter. It went in for about 45 minutes covered with foil and then was uncovered for the last 20 or so minutes. The potatoes weren't all even in size and this was not done in a beautiful white and orange pattern, but it came out fantastic. Ironically, I did make a combined potato casserole similar to this from a recipe at some point in the past, with everything carefully layered to be beautiful, and it did not come out as well as this one did.

[Pat]

Thursday night's dinner:

Red leaf lettuce, cucumber, tomato, red bell pepper, feta, pepperoncini, kalamata olives; vinaigrette
Ginger scone
Chicken thighs ranchero
Spiced roasted acorn squash stuffed with spiced roasted butternut squash

The enormous scone was from Souk. I didn't realize when I bought it that it was glazed, so it was a little sweeter than anticipated, but not really all that sweet. My husband and I both had part of it and there's still plenty left for tomorrow.

The chicken concoction, which used up the last of the ranchero sauce I made last week, was excellent. I sauteed 8 skinless boneless chicken thighs in some olive oil for about 15 minutes total, mixed them with the heated remainder of the sauce, and put in the oven for a fairly short stay to warm everything through. When they came out I laid thin slices of Monterey Jack over top and they melted nicely over the chicken by the time we ate.

The squash two ways was seasoned with warm spices (ginger, cinnamon, paprika, nutmeg, turmeric, black pepper) plus a little salt. I roasted the acorn squash whole and then halved and seeded it and filled each half with a dab of butter and its version of the spices before filling the cavity with spiced roasted butternut.

The chicken and squash didn't particularly go together. I had kind of hoped the spiciness of the sauce would complement the spiced squash, but not so much. Profiles were too different. Both came out great, though. I guess the squash kind of matched with the scone

[deangold]

Argentine Red Shrimp, peeled, head on, shio koji marinated for 1/2 hour. Could have used more marination. Grilled on cast iron raised grill. Served w/Japanese mustard & wasabi mixed with sesame oil, persimmon vinegar, mirin, soy. Excellent. Next time I will grill the shrimp and deep fry the heads. 

Portuguese Sardines grilled on the cast iron grill. I sauteed green onion w/olive oil, spice rub, pepper, salt. This was really good. I don't know if the sardines were fresh or previously frozen. Best part was all the seafood was cheap. $7 for both and we could barely finish it all.

Solace brewing Lucy Juicy DIPA & Suns Out, Hops Out IPA

 

[MarkS]

11 hours ago, deangold said:

Argentine Red Shrimp, peeled, head on, shio koji marinated for 1/2 hour. Could have used more marination. Grilled on cast iron raised grill. Served w/Japanese mustard & wasabi mixed with sesame oil, persimmon vinegar, mirin, soy. Excellent. Next time I will grill the shrimp and deep fry the heads. 

Portuguese Sardines grilled on the cast iron grill. I sauteed green onion w/olive oil, spice rub, pepper, salt. This was really good. I don't know if the sardines were fresh or previously frozen. Best part was all the seafood was cheap. $7 for both and we could barely finish it all.

Solace brewing Lucy Juicy DIPA & Suns Out, Hops Out IPA

Is this  grill pan or something else?  Sounds great

[deangold]

1 hour ago, MarkS said:

Is this  grill pan or something else?  Sounds great

One of these

[deangold]

The shiokoji chicken thigh trial.

A stalk of brussels sprouts had a "cabbage" on top of the stalk. You can cut it off. It has three components: the tiniest brussels sprouts hidden among leaves w/stems, outer leaves that look like the outer leaves of a full size cabbage, and a loose core of what looks like a cabbage and tastes sweeter than a brussels sprout. 

I used this in a stir fry of tokyo bekana and all of the top, with the components cut into various siized to equalize their cooking time. I used olive oil, salt, pepper, spice rub and crushed garlic. This all was cooked in black carbon steel, the top first followed by the bekana. When it was all cooked al dente with a few nicely scorched bits, I put it in a serving bowl and sprinkled with lemon juice. 

Homemade green tea gelato. I followed the recipe from Cuisine art but used 6 egg yolks instead of 5. I must have used half a cup of matcha powder for about 1 quart of gelato mix. From cooking until halfway thru churning, it had a strong 'swampy taste' but when it froze to a soft serve texture, it was perfect. This will be a good way to use up the way too much matcha powder I have. The powder makes great smoothies and gelato, but undrinkable matcha itself.

[Pat]

Baked chicken breasts
Balsamic rainbow chard and beet greens
Brown rice studded with peas and roasted butternut squash cubes

[deangold]

I took some assorted greens: red radish, hakurei turnip, and Tokyo bekana, added dulse, and marinated them in shio koji, sesame oil, soy. After a hour or so of marinating, I added some persimmon vinegar. Very light and tasty. The shio koji added a something special without dominating the flavor.

Next were fried potatoes. I cooked some guanciale to render the fat and took out the crispy bits and set aside. I boiled some red new potatoes from Spring Valley until almost knife tender. I cubed them roughly and tossed them in the pan with the guanciale fat with slivered onion, salt, & pepper. I quickly saw I didn't have enough fa and added olive oil in two doses. Next time I will triple the guanciale and use a bit of chicken fat we have on hand. Sauteed them in a black carbon steel pan and let them go for 10 minutes between stirrings. Given out lousy stove, the heat concentrated int he center but I put this to good use letting the very center get crispy and the outside remain soft. This was decadent and wonderful

Last was dashi stock {hon dashi powder}, soy, sesame oil, mirin. I put in shredded brussels sprouts, onion, one king trumpet mushroom, some seafood mushrooms, bamboo shoot and firm tofu. Light, filling and flavorful.

We finished off the 1st of the three pints from our ice cream maker. The machine only get the ie cream to a soft serve consistency and the first batch iced up and got a little hard by the second day. This time, I packed the gelato into pints and doubled the containers so they were insulated a bit and the freezing would be slower. Much better result as we saw tonight. No ice crystals and a very smooth texture. 

Drink: Negroni variation: Lyons White Rum {more hogo than any other local rums I have had and not as much as an agricole,} Luxardo Aperitivo, and Capitoline white vermouth. Mine had Peychauds whiskey barrel bitters, and the Bitter Truth's celery bitters and Angostura orange. Kay's had Bitter Truth lemon and Bitter Truth celery and I added a little whisky barrel bitters after she tried mine. As I say, bitters make the cocktail. The two cocktails were different tasted side by side and both very good. Mine was strained and Kay's on the rocks.

A few shots of Soju

A bit if a Macallan Speyside single malt bottling, 11 year. Macallan from a barrel bottler and not the distillery is a revelation: fruit and elegance lacking in the Macallan distillery 12 year. While there are fine distillery bottlings: Caol Ila, Scapa and Ardbeg come to mind, the big guns are either stupid expensive for over wooded malts or just not that good. 

 

[Pat]

Salad (red leaf lettuce, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, red bell pepper); vinaigrette
Pork Medallions with Cumberland Sauce
Roasted broccoli
Leftover scalloped russet and sweet potatoes

I wasn't sure what to make for dinner out of the choices I had on hand. When I took a walk before starting in on dinner preparation, I stopped to look at some books stuck out by the curb. I thumbed through a fairly well-worn Eating Well cookbook and was interested a cauliflower recipe with garlic sauce I spied. It had just started to sprinkle rain, so it was either take the book or it would get soaked overnight. No good coming back tomorrow and seeing if it was still there.

So, I rescued the book and took it home. Then I decided I didn't want to make the cauliflower recipe after all. I looked further and found a pork tenderloin recipe and made that instead. The Cumberland Sauce on it was quite good.

Now I have yet another cookbook...This one is c1994, which means these "favorite" recipes are from the first iteration of the magazine, which I had a subscription to and enjoyed a lot.

[deangold]

A lot of snacking all afternoon made distinguishing lunch from dinner hard. Some of what we had

Amazingly sweet red grapefruit

Ramen: Bone broth Korean ramen cup {nongshim}

Last of the greens pickles from yesterday.

Fresh radish

Seylou Pane di Campagne & olive oil

Duck Bolognese Lasagne

Wine: 1984 Optima

[dcandohio]

SuperBowl chili. South Florida cooperated with a cool, dry day which made chili seem perfect!

[Pat]

I sort of Super-Bowl-ified the food we were going to have for dinner, with both chicken drumsticks and cauliflower being tossed with a buffalo wing sauce. I made the sauce I would typically make for wings (Frank's red hot sauce, butter, and lime juice). I also cut up some celery and carrots and made a ranch dressing for dipping. (I used the Pam Anderson buttermilk ranch recipe, which I hadn't made in a while, even though it's easy to remember. The dressing is simple and really good: 1/3 cup each sour cream, buttermilk, and mayo, a minced garlic clove, and 3 Tbsp. either rice wine vinegar or lemon juice.)

The cauliflower was roasted whole, then wrapped in foil and left to steam for a while, and finally pulled apart into smaller sections and mixed with sauce. (This was loosely based on a recipe for buffalo cauliflower I'd seen online.) The chicken had been marinated in buttermilk with cayenne and Tabasco overnight, was charred on all sides in a grill pan, and then finished in a hot oven before immersion in sauce.

I also made some nachos, the original style individual ones, using Late July's lime sea salt chips. Each was topped with a jalapeno slice, some minced shallot, and a mix of cheddar and Monterey Jack cheeses before a quick trip to the oven for the cheese to melt. Sour cream at the table. I forgot the avocado.

[deangold]

Skirt steak marinated in shio koji, grilled rare {tediously detailed description of the 4 way marination trial we ran}

Salad of spring valley salad greens with a dressing made from the left over marinade from Trader Joes marinated artichokes mixed w/champagne vinegar & persimmon vinegar.

Seylou pain de campagne with grated asiago & fontina melted in the toaster oven

Wine: The rest {2/3 bottle} of Optima 1994 Alesander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon which seemed overly extracted yesterday. We used a coravin on it and today's glasses were much more balanced and it was quite a lovely wine. They are still around and they are on their 2015 release of the Alexander Valley cab {$45} and they have a more expensive {$55} Knight's Valley bottle as well. But looking at their website, they have a dry creek petite sirah and gewurztraminer from Dry Creek Valley that interest me.  The petite is small bin fermented, 15 months is new and 1 year oak. The gewurz gets 6 hours skin contact and is fermented dry in stainless. Based on our tasting of the cab, I'd look for these wines. 

[Pat]

Dinner last night was wild sockeye salmon with tomato cream sauce, leftover scalloped russet and sweet potatoes, and a melange of roasted brussels sprouts and sauteed button mushrooms.

The salmon was seasoned with lemon juice, salt, fine black pepper, ground coriander and sumac. I cracked some red pepper over top before serving. The salmon and potatoes looked gorgeous next to each other, especially with the almost salmon-colored cream sauce. The tomatoes tinted the cream as it cooked.

[ktmoomau]

Last night I made steak on my cast iron with some Adam's Steak Seasoning.  I also made Brussels sprouts and gave them a little char in the pan, then threw in a little water and tossed with salt and pepper.  I then thinned out the leftover cheese dipping sauce from our delivery order the other night, with a little milk and put that on top of the Brussels (I know, I know they were good on their own, but I didn't feel good and wanted childhood put cheese sauce on it food).  I also thawed a bag of mashed potatoes I had frozen- likely leftovers from T-day, and while they were dreadfully runny in the ziploc bag, when I put them in the oven in a casserole dish they firmed up nicely, and came back to a good texture. I put some margarine on them in the end just for flavor.  Quite impressed by the potato reformation actually, I was thinking that was not going to turn out well.  

[deangold]

Very low key dinner tonight. We had 2-16 oz containers of soup in the freezer: a cream soup w/lots of spicy greens and a beet and meat borscht. We mixed the two and the combined soup was better than either of the separate soups. The big lesson learned was that local potatoes don't freeze well cut up, but the pureed potatoes in the cream soup were pretty righteous. 

We had some garners cut up broccoli and cauliflower as well as lots of brussels sprouts. We combined them and tossed with salt, spice rub, pepper, sesame oil, a dew drops of soy and roasted them on a rack on a sheet pan. AFter 15 minutes at 400 we ruened them and continues for anther 10. Just perfect even if we forgot to toss on the chopped herbs we had. 

Beer: Hardywood west coast style IPA which is boring as all get out. I don't remember any of my favorite West Coast IPAs being so papery and bitter without the high aromatics from the hops. I would never have ordered it in a bar, but I bought a 4 pack at TJ's and we are going to finish it one way or the other. We also have a Hardywood Raspberry stout which we have higher hopes for. 

Gelato was Matcha which is holding up well. I need to get insulated containers for the gelato. Our next batch is going to be ginger matcha. 

 

 

[Tweaked]

Kimchi fried rice with avocado

[Pat]

Salad: red leaf lettuce, cucumber, radish, avocado, cherry tomato, chickpeas, and buttermilk homemade ranch dressing; feta/blue cheese for adding at the table
Leftover chicken thighs in ranchero sauce
Spaghetti with a little olive oil and hot pepper flakes
Leftover roasted broccoli

[Pat]

More of the salad, above
Creamy tomatillo, fennel, and potato soup
Mushroom and salami pizza with fontina, jack, and parmesan cheeses
 

[deangold]

Wednesday Night

House made Mak Kimchi, now very fermented but still crunchy, very funky but in a very good way. I would go lighter on the heat nex batch.

Lacto Fermented Giarinara: hakurei turnip, red radish {unfortunately all the color leeched into the brine, so couldn't really tell them apart} Romanesco and leaves. Really good batch, now quite well fermented and reminiscent of the full sours at The Pickle Guys on the LES in NYC. 

Tofu soaked in Ponzu. More of the toofu in the kimchi juice

Japanese rice with the endosperm, really nice. Cooked tot he wet and alightly sticky side as we get in good Korean places.

Green Tea Gelato

Cocktail: Ric Flairs {Rye, amaro, cherry liqueur, cinzano rosso, Extravagant amounts of Peychaud's Whiskey Barrel Bitters, Bitermans Orange Cream Citrate, 2 Luxardo cherries. 

Beer: 3rd of 4 cans of Hardywood IPA. Still bleh.

[deangold]

Thursday:

Shenandoah Valley Brisket braised w/lots of garlic, onion, red wine & tomato
Brussels Sprouts and Stalk panfried w/say, fish sauce, s & p,, spice rub, then lime juice at serving
Salad of adolescent greens from spring valley. Dressing: sherry vinegar, touch of sesame oil, homemade grainy mustard, fish sauce,olive oil.

Cheese course: Pecorino di Montalcino Fattoria del Barbi w/truffle ~ Pecorino di Marche Stagionata

Wine: Girard 1980, big, jammy in a good way, opulent blackberry. Bottle had a touch of seeping from top of cork and fill was high shoulder. Really spectacular. We only intended to drink half the bottle so we coravin'd it but wound up popping the cork and finishing it off.  Really stunning. I think I have another bottle.

[Pat]

Baby arugula, shaved Parmesan, toasted walnuts; lemon - walnut - fig vinaigrette
Chili with beef and beans; grated cheddar; sour cream
Cornbread

I used two kinds of beef for the chili: lean chuck stew meat and ground.  A lot of times I buy the chili grind meat but couldn't find any, so I used a small amount of regular grind (about 1/2 lb.), but the bulk of the meat was chunked (about 1 1/4 lbs.). I cut the chunks into smaller pieces, about 1/2" cubes. The result was a fairly meat-dense chili that was delicious when simmered for hours. I pre-browned the regular ground beef to render and drain a lot of its fat off and dumped that meat into the chili once I got it going.

Over-seasoned early on, the flavors also mellowed out nicely with little adjustment over the cooking time. I used a habanero, a small Fresno, half a large jalapeno, and 1 whole chipotle in adobo plus a generous teaspoon of additional sauce. I also added dried ancho, chipotle, cayenne, and pre-blended chili powders, plus black pepper and a modest amount of salt. For the liquid, there was beef broth, lager, and tomato sauce, plus a little water as needed.

I had thought I'd round it out with beans, not expecting my dual meats would go as far as they did. I was using canned red kidney beans and had opened and rinsed two cans when I realized it was going to be a lot. I had them ready so added them all in the last hour of cooking. This was a really substantial stick-to-your-ribs chili, great with cornbread (from my favorite recipe) crumbled in.

[dcandohio]

I have been kind of in a rut lately, relying on my wok for stir fry: greens and other vegetables with ginger, garlic, sesame oil, hot chili oil, and a bit of soy sauce. Served over rice. Trying to cram more vegetables into my diet. 

[Pat]

Baby arugula, halved cherry tomatoes, feta, lemon juice (plus remainder of lemon - walnut - fig vinaigrette)
Macaroni and cheese
Baked stuffed bell peppers

The peppers were stuffed with white rice mixed with Rao's tomato and garden vegetable sauce and topped with grated Parmesan. I can't recall why I originally opened the jar of sauce, but I've been portioning it out in various meals. It's got a lot of vegetables, including bell peppers and mushrooms.

The meal was fairly carb-heavy. I don't often make rice and pasta in the same day, let alone the same meal, but I was trying to use up bits of things. It was vegetarian, though .

[deangold]

Given we are going out tonight, we had dinner at lunch!

Korean cucumber w/ume paste

Ciabatta bread & lebne w/salt & pepper

Roasted beets w/sherry wine vinegar, salt & pepper

Spanish Mackerel, grilled on my cast iron grill served w/lime, ponzu & wasabi/mustard mix. Fish from Lotte Plaza {Braddock Road & 495} was impeccable. They butterflied it for me. $8 for two large examples, we have enough for a second meal left over. 

Later we will have some bread and cheese before we go out.

Wish I could tell you whose bread it was, but it was from Falls Church Farmer's market, closest to the library entrance, next to Spring Valley. Their breads are a little airy but otherwise very good. 

[Pat]

Sheet pan spicy chipotle wings and sweet potato wedges
Farro with broccoli and tomatoes

[deangold]

Bit of cleaning out the fridge...

Salad of left~over Spanish mackerel, Korean cuke, Purple daikon, left over dressing spiked w/left over wasabi/mustard. a few drops of fish sauce

Last of the roasted beets marinted in salt, pepper, spice rub, lots of sherry vinegar, a bit of olive oil.

Grilled Ciabatta

Last of the still boring Hardywood IPA {we had a Hardywood Pils earlier and it was just OK but nothing special}

[Pat]

Chicken drumsticks
Wedges of green cabbage
Leftover macaroni and cheese

The twist to last night's meal was that the chicken and cabbage were done sous vide. The drumsticks were leftover baked ones that had been vacuum-sealed and frozen. Since they were already packaged for it, I decided to sous vide them to reheat. Since the machine I have is a bit of a project to fill with water, etc. I wanted to make something else at the same time. I settled on sous viding the cabbage I'd had hanging out in the refrigerator for a couple weeks. I cut the cabbage into four wedges and each one got a teaspoon or two of butter and a pinch of salt in its bag. They went into the water for 2 hours at 183F. The chicken went in for the last hour. I browned the wedges in a little butter in a scorching cast iron pan before serving, seasoned with a little black pepper and a sprinkling of nutmeg.

The cabbage was oddly delicious. The outer leaves had a silky sheen on them, I think from butter they were heated with, and the browning on the outside left little crispy bits that had caramelized. I didn't think they really tasted cabbage-y, but my husband said he could taste it. This was also very filling. I couldn't even make it all the way through one wedge.

[dcandohio]

Yesterday I decided to take a little ride out west to an Asian shopping center and I picked up a pound of “honey roasted pork,” aka char siu. As in previous stirfry meals, I cooked ginger and garlic in a little bit of olive oil, sesame oil, and hot chili oil, and then added a big handful of trimmed green beans. After the green beans started to get cooked, I threw in a lot of chopped bok choy. At the end, I added diced up pork and finished with a splash of soy sauce and some white pepper. I was perhaps a little too generous with the hot chili oil, but otherwise,  tasty. I didn’t feel like making rice, but it would’ve been wonderful with some rice. 

[deangold]

In the running of my tri tip trails w/koji rice vs shio koji, I had to trim the tritip so I cold slice it into nice even steaks. the result was dinner last night.

The tri tip was cut into 1" x 3/4" x 1-1/2" pieces and marinated in koji powder shio koji for 24 hours. I got my cast iron grilled very hot. First went on thinly slices potatoes {a new variety yukon gold type I got from Marty of 3 springs, they were wonderful} and sliced onion from a stand at Falls Church. Once the veggies were well browned and cooked thru, I put them on a serving plate and then cooked the meat. 

The meat was tangy but the Shiokoji did not have enough time to change the texture. The potatoes and onions {cooked and eaten separately} were super and super simple. The entire meal took 10 miutes. As we ate, I left the cast iron on over low heat and right after dinner I removed the little stuck burnt bits and oiled the pan. This a I just had to drain off the fat accumulated in the grease well and wipe it clean. 

To finish up our wine, we had a slice of Pecoring di Marche stagionato which was really incredible. Unfortunately, the bill from IGF only lists the cheese generically and the label has been cut up or removed from the small pieces in our freezer bag portions. 

Dessert was the last of the matcha gelato.

Wine: Conn Creek Zinfandel 1976 Chateau Maja vineyard which has a lot of nice bramble spice when accompanying the food and cheese but showed signs of decay on its own. Still, it was a great accompaniment.

[Tweaked]

Vietnamese Coffee Ice Cream

[Pat]

Spicy Southwestern Soup*
Leftover cornbread
Baby spinach, baby arugula, roasted baby beets, toasted walnuts, feta, and homemade ranch dressing
Turkey meatloaf topped with vegetable tomato sauce

*I ordered a bag of this soup mix to try when I placed an order for a variety of dried vegetables (and some fruit) at North Bay Trading Company recently. Apparently, their soup mixes are sold at Whole Foods and they also supply some of Whole Foods bulk products. People's raves about the soup on their site got to me to try making it in a crock pot, as many of them had, and I think it would have been better made on the stovetop so it could thicken up some. Crumbling cornbread into it achieved the same end, though. I also find the crockpot somehow sucks the depth of flavor out of things.

It is, true to advertising, very spicy. I can't say we loved it as much as the testimonials on the site, but it was very easy to make and tasted fine. Low in calories and sodium. High in fiber. I prepared it with low sodium boxed chicken broth.

[ktmoomau]

Last night was Chicken Piccata- I always forget about this dish, but I really like it.  Really I just love capers, and this is an excuse to eat capers with lemon butter sauce- how can that be bad?  I struggle because I could likely use the giant jar of capers, but I don't want to have to keep that in my fridge.  We had it over green beans that I sauteed. There are leftovers that I will use with pasta, as there is a fair amount of sauce left. 

Saturday I made chicken noodle soup.  It was a rather bland chicken, so I added some ginger, lemongrass, clove and corriander and had to also add a little powdered soup base and then used some rice noodles that I wanted to use up.  It turned out good with the doctoring.

Sunday's dinner was chips and salsa. 

[deangold]

Tri tip 3 ways: Koji Rice & 2 x Shio Koji. Some really amazing results and I look forward to more koji & beef fun.

Quick pickles made w/shio koji, persimmon vinegar, sheerry wine vinegar, sesame oil, tamari. We used red radish, red and white daikon, and turnip greens. Lots of left overs so I will see how these age for a day or two. This more than doubles the amount of food you get from a bunch of radish, turnip or daikon etc.

Griddled potato slices w/divina oven roasted tomato, garlic, lebne, olive oil, sherry wine vinegar puree for dipping. The left over dip will go for crudite tomorrow.

Kikusui Junmai Ginjo sake. The last of the Conn Creek 76 zin.

A slice of the Pecorino Marchigiano

[Pat]

Soy, sesame, and hot pepper marinated baked tofu and chicken thighs
Mushroom sauce
Leftover spicy chicken wings and sweet potato wedges
Yogurt - citrus sauce