Dinner - The Polyphonic Food Blog

[ktmoomau]

Chicken fajitas!  (You can't see the little chicken fajita dance I am doing, I love chicken fajitas.) With fat free refried beans (which really might be worth the WW points to have the full fat version, but I am trying), greek yogurt, salsa, shrettuce, hot sauce, and reduced fat cheese.  And I had mine on carb balance tortillas.  This is my favorite "diet" meal that doesn't really taste to me like I am really giving things up. 

[Pat]

Baby arugula, baby spinach, baby beets, toasted walnuts, feta, and soft goat cheese with homemade ranch dressing
Sausages, onions, and peppers
Leftover farro with tomato and broccoli, plus leftover mushroom sauce

The sausages were Trader Joe's chicken, a mix of sun-dried tomato and sweet Italian with bell peppers. I hadn't tried these before, I don't think. I preferred the sun-dried tomato ones, which surprised me. I was planning to buy just the sweet Italian and splurged. After I browned these I added the last of the Rao's garden vegetable sauce diluted with water. (There was maybe only 1/3 cup of it left.) I plated the sausages and sauce partially over the peppers and onions. It got an extra pan dirty, but it came out well doing the components separately. I used three colors of bell peppers in this (yellow, red, and green).

The mushroom sauce I had improvised for the previous night's tofu is really good. I think it was better mixed into the farro than over the tofu and chicken. I've got to figure out what to do with the rest of it.

[deangold]

Duck cannelloni out of the freezer w/freezer local heirloom tomato sauce & parm.

Sliced koji rice aged steak, cold, sliced thin. Green herb, garlic & yogurt sauce

Left over radish etc green pickles.

Thai banana

Crudite w/sun dried tomato, garlic & lebne pesto.

Drink: rye not so old fashioned: Old overholt, payhaud's whiskey barrel bitters soaked sugar cube, 1/2 slice mandarin, muddled. Really good.

Wine: Alcesti Frappato {fruit bomb styles red from Sicily.

[deangold]

Dungeness Crab bought live and steamed at home. Aside from listening to the crab say "I've got a wife and 250,000 fertilized eggs back home, the whole process was easy. Steamed it 15 minutes in a large pot {my canning pot using the canning rack to hole the crab out of the water/} Served with with veganaise, the tomalley & lemon juice.

Last of the leftover tri tip, this the shio koji marinated one. Superb cold. Tangy, sweet, meaty.

Beets marinated in sherry wine vinegar w/slivered onion.

Bread

First drink: Corpse Reviver #2 with Dimmi liqueur standing in for Absinthe. Bombay sapphire, cocchi, lemon juice, triplum 1 oz ea Luxardo cherry garnish.Grapefruit & hops bitters from bitterman's

2nd drink was not as good: Brokers Gin, Cocchi, triplum, sweet lime which I thought was going to be like a Rangpur. Instead it was sugar sweet. Had to add 1/2 oz lemon juice and still too sweet. Bitterman's Grapefruit bitters helped a little. Bitter Truth Lemon bitters helped more. No cherry garnish. Weird but I drank it.

[Pat]

I found out what to do with the rest of the mushroom sauce: I added it at the end after I sauteed a whole lot of baby arugula with garlic and bacon last night. (Added a little chicken broth to the arugula to cook off too.) I hope I remember how I made those mushrooms. They have umami off the charts.

For the rest of the meal, we had fairly thin baked sockeye salmon fillets, sprinkled with a little gochugaru and lemon juice, plus leftover macaroni and cheese. I also heated up the last of the Spicy Southwestern Soup and the last of the cornbread for my husband so he had enough to eat .

[deangold]

Very nice Valentine's Day meal with Kay. I got a couple of dabs from H Mart. The pair was about 2-1/2 pounds whole and they cleaned and gutted them. I am familiar with sand dabs from California but these were larger. As it turned out, they had roe as well. Dabs ae a flat fish much like a flounder but smaller. I sprinkled them with salt and pepper and griddled them about 10 minutes. While they were cooking, I made a sauce: sauteed capers & red onion is half and half butter & olive oil. Added white wine and thyme and cooked untilt he raw wine taste disappeared. Then mounted with a bit of butter to leave it emilsified but runny. I had meant to use lime juice as well so we just poured the lime juice over the butter sauce covered fish. They wound up needing salt at the table. The flesh is soft, close to but short of mushy. It was moist and delicate in flavor, but rich from the butter.  The roe sacks were prefect, a little done on the outside where they were near the griddle and soft and just warmed in the center. The roe was a super bonus and I am fairly sure the roe season is pretty short. 

Our veggie was brussels sprouts steamed and then pan fried, seasoned with spice rub, salt and pepper. 

We finished up with a decadent pistachio cookie from a bakery downtown, Nino's is the name, I think. 

Drinks:

Kay had a spin on a Corpse Reviver: citrus & blackberry infused gin, Cocchi Americano, Triplum, lime juice served in a glass with a Suze rinse {replacing the absinthe.} I started with a Gin Gimlet: 2 oz Bombay Sapphire and 3/4 oz Andrew's lime cordial, stirred served up.

With dinner we enjoyed the rest of our bottle of kikusui sake.

After dinner, and after cookie, we shared a Sazerac made with Old Overholt. I chilled the glass and gave it a Suze rinse. I then muddled a sugar cube with 4 dashes of Peychaud's aromatic bitters and 3 of Peychaud's Whiskey Barrel Bitters. Added 3 oz old Overholt. The sazerac is fast becoming my favorite warming cocktail. I am going to invest in a bottle of HerbSaint for both my Sazeracs and Corpse Revivers. 

[Pat]

Our Valentine's meal started with a marinated cauiflower and pepper salad (strips of roasted red and minced raw Fresno, plus a few quartered kalamata olives). Then we split a reverse-seared boneless NY strip steak, on the cusp of rare/medium rare, served with a creamy linguine with Parmesan, peas, mint, lemon, and mascarpone. I more or less followed this recipe. The mint was  my addition. 'Twas an excellent meal.

[reedm]

Last night's dinner began a couple of gin-based cocktails inspired by a bottle of Ford's Gin that I managed to find. Classic Negroni for me, with the gin, Campari, and Carpano Antica Formula, and a Bee's Knees for Mrs. Reedm. Quite delicious.

I prepared Steak Diane using Mark Bittman's NY Times recipe as a starting point. Very easy and tasty. As a side, I roasted some radishes with olive oil and a few seasonings. 

The 2016 Chateau La Grange Clinet Reserve was a fine match for the meal.

I also attempted to make some chocolate covered strawberries, but the monk fruit sweetener used at the request of my keto diet wife (ugh) didn't set very well.

[deangold]

5 hours ago, reedm said:

Ford's Gin

Outstanding gin that. I just picked up a bottle of Plymouth at 15% off so special ordering a Ford's will have to wait.

[deangold]

We have a whole local pork loin cut up in the freezer. The pork comes from a siingle farm in Greencastle MD and is a duroc/Berkshire cross. We got 6 bone in chops, 6 boneless steaks and a couple of roasts. Earlier, I took out the sirloin roast. After it thawed, I boned out the hip bone and there were feather bones from the loin end too. Next I cut it in half horizontally to make one of the pieces flat. Next I rubbed all the meat with a lot of garlic, sage, rosemary, salt, black pepper, Aleppo pepper, & olive oil. I put the meat in a bag to marinate in the fridge for 4 days. Today, I took out the meat and laid the smaller piece on top of the flat piece and tied it into an even roast. I put a probe thermometer in it and set it on the counter. When I was finished tying the roast, it read 48 degrees. two hours later is read 53 degrees confirming that leaving meat out to warm up isn't effective. I put the roast in the oven at 220 degrees and left it until it reached 160. I removed it and let is rest for 30 minutes or so and then put it in a 500 degree oven bottom up for 4 or 5 minutes, then flipped it for 3 so it was nicely browned all over. Then I deglazed the fond in the roasting pan with white wine while I cooked off some capers in olive oi in a separate skillet. When the roasting pan was fully deglazed I strained the juices into the capers. Then I reduced that and added a little home made fermented grainy mustard, sesame oil and Iwashi fish sauce. I spooned this over the sliced meat. 

To accompany, I blanched kalettes which are the tips of a kale plant much like the brussels srout top has a loose head at the top. We iced them, sauteed garlic and tossed in the kalettes. A little lime juice, salt, pepper & spice rub finished it.

Wine: 1984 Caymus Cabernet from back in the day when Caymus made traditional style cabs: not too ripe, aged in american oak after some time in large tank. This is basically the style pioneered by Louis Martini. Now days, Caymus is made with lots of relatively new French Oak and tasted like most other Napa cabs. This was funky and quite ripe from the 84 vintage, not from late picking. the flavors and mouth impressions were of a fine old cab, pretty fully mature. The nose has  touch of hot vintage funk you get in 45 year old cabs from hot vintages. We have had about a dozen California cabs from the 1980's now and they have all been in fine condition age wise and the vintage variations are quite apparent and drive the wines. So the canard that Cali cabs of the 80s don't age because of their old school wine making is a bucket of duck spit. 

After dinner: DC Sazerac: We ahve a couple of bottles of Burrough Bourbon from Republic Restoratives. It is not a great sipping bourbon but it makes for nice cocktails. Given that it is a high rye mashbill bourbon, I decided to try it in a Sazerac. Kay and I has slight variations on each other's drink

Kay's: 2 oz bourbon, Suze rinse, sugar cube, peychauds aromatic bitters {4 or so dashes,} 2 dashes Peychaud's whiskey barrel bitters and a 1" dropper full of Bitterman's Orange Cream Citrate bitters.  

Mine: 2 oz bourbon, Dimmi rinse, sugar cube, 6 dashes Peychaud's aromatic bitters, 2 droppers 1" full of the Bitterman's orange citrate bitters, a healthy dosing of The Bitter Truth peach bitters. The doser on The Bitter Truth is stingy, making giving amounts used difficult. 

Comparison: Kay's was a little harsher, mine more aromatic with the peach adding an undertone and not a distinctve peach flavor. 

Notes: On the bitters: the Peychaud's bitters were added first to the sugar cube and muddled. Then upon tasting the drink, I add more bitters depending on what I think it needs. The orange citrate bitters add smoothness to a cocktail made with brown spirits so they went in to fight the harshness. When I made mine and doubled the orange citrate, the nose became washed out but the drink was far smoother. SO I tried my new Peach Bitters to see where it would go. I added about 6 shakes, tasted, then added about 6 more. As I say in my signature box: Bitters make the cocktail. We now have 15 different bitters for loads of experimentation. 

[Pat]

Iceberg lettuce salad with sliced baby beets, cucumber and radishes, topped with sliced leftover strip steak and a couple of pepperoncini; vinaigrette (and blue cheese dressing for me)
Chilaquile casserole
Steamed broccoli

The chilaquile casserole is an old Mollie Katzen recipe I've been making for going on 25 years (!). I hadn't made it in quite some time and realized I had all the ingredients. The basic procedure: Saute a chopped up onion and a minced garlic clove for a few minutes and set aside. Cover the bottom of a greased casserole dish with 6 torn apart corn tortillas (about 1 inch pieces) and layer on top 1 cup shredded Monterey jack cheese, a small can of chopped green chilies, the onion and garlic, and then repeat the layers of tortillas/cheese/chilies (same amounts). Whisk together 4 large eggs, 2 cups buttermilk (I use whole fat but she doesn't specify), salt, pepper, cumin, and dried oregano. The recipe only calls for very tiny amounts of the last two. I always use more, just what looks right. That's probably 1/2 tsp. or so of cumin and 1 Tbsp. oregano. Bake at 375 for 45 minutes, until it's set and and browned on the top.

 

[Pat]

Whole wheat naan
Pork cutlets
Cauliflower in cheese sauce
Buttered peas

[deangold]

After a lot of snacking today, dinner was very simple.

I made a soup with lacinato kale and leeks from last week's farmer's market using water & half and half that we had around the house. Then I pureed it in the Blendtec. I seasoned it with Japanese soy, Double Golden Fish brand Sriracha, salt, pepper, a ton of black pepper, a little spice rub {the one we uesed all the time at the Grotto, and a warm spice mix {cinnamon, allspice, black  cumin, cloves, Aleppo.}

No cocktails tonight. But a shot of Burroughs Bourbon is coming soon. 

[Pat]

Waldorf salad on a bed of red leaf lettuce
Sweet Italian and sun-dried tomato chicken sausages
Buttered (Canadian) organic wild rice
Steamed and pan-grilled brussels sprouts dressed with Gochujang and toasted sesame oil

The Asian seasoning for the sprouts was to make them more appealing to my husband, and it was a good variation from my usual preparations. I used Dean's idea (thanks, Dean!) of steaming them before finishing them on the stovetop. I steamed the sprouts for a few minutes in the microwave, cooled a bit, then halved them and put cut-side down on a scorching hot cast iron grill pan until they got some grill marks and crispy edges.

The Canadian wild rice also came from North Bay Trading Co. It's longer and chewier than American (well, Minnesota, I guess) wild rice..and even more expensive! It was wonderful, though, dressed with just butter, salt, and pepper.

And, Waldorf salad is one of my childhood favorites. My grandmother used to make it for me when I was little, just walnuts, celery, raisins, apples, and Hellman's mayo. I can't remember if she (or my mom, when she made it) used lemon juice, but I add a little, at least to keep the apples from browning once they've been chopped. My husband doesn't like mayonnaise very much, so I don't make this often, but it always makes me happy when I do.

[deangold]

A Korean soup from a frozen pack. Potato, zucchini, rice cake and we added tofu, mushrooms and shishito. Very thick broth. 

Drink: Draft Makkoli, Old Overholt rye

Ginger gelato.

[dcandohio]

Linguine with sautéed cherry tomatoes, chili flake, and homemade pesto. 

[Pat]

Salad of iceberg and red leaf lettuces, radishes, luna sweet tomatoes, cucumber; white balsamic vinaigrette
Leftover creamy linguine alfredo with (extra) peas and lemon
Asparagus topped with fried eggs; bacon on the side

The runny egg yolk was wonderful on the asparagus and it moseyed on over into some of the pasta too.

[deangold]

Beet & brisket borscht.

[Pat]

Whole wheat naan and butter
Turkey meatloaf
Leftover cauliflower in cheese sauce
Leftover wild rice

 

 

[deangold]

Left over Korean potato, rice cake, zucchini soup

Shenandoah Skirt Steak grilled on Yaki Nikku grill w/wasabi mustard, ponzu and sasame oil w/salt dip. Skirt steak marinated in barrel aged fish sauce.

Shishito peppers

Ginger Ice Cream

Drinks:

Kay: Negroni w/luxardo bitter, capitoline dry & Bombay sapphire, 2 dropper fulls of Bitterman's hopped grapefruit bitters.

Me: Plymouth Martini 2z gin, 1.5z dolin 1 dropper grapefruit hops bitters, Bitter Truth lemon bitters. Thais left the drink pretty diffuse and dull but the addition of a little bit of Peychaud's aromatic bitters balanced it. The Plymouth/Dolin combo is superb, the bitters were not well chosen. 

The rest of the Caymus 1984 cabernet from the other night. Despite the cork splitting when we opened it, the seal from the coravin was tight as we could hear the slight noise from the release of the argon pressure in the wine. Big, thick, a little chewy. Went great with the steak which was a touch surprising as the steak was aggressively flavored and the wine 35 years old. 

[Pat]

Camembert; blue cheese; rosemary crackers; stone wheat crackers; warmed whole wheat naan; assorted nuts
Potato and beet salad
Leftover turkey meatloaf and gravy
Leftover cauliflower in cheese sauce
Steamed spinach

I crumbled blue cheese from the cheese plate onto my salad. The salad itself was quite good and that made it even better.

[Pat]

Sourdough bread and butter
Creamy chicken, wild rice, and lima bean soup
Leftover potato and beet salad

The limas were (very old) Christmas limas from Rancho Gordo. I haven't been cooking many dried beans and, for the ones I have made, I haven't dug into my stock of heirloom beans. I finally used the remaining about 3/4 of a bag of the gorgeous Christmas limas I'd opened who knows when. I soaked overnight (12 hours) and cooked them seemingly forever -- about 8 hours in total -- and they finally softened just at the right time to finish for the last bit of time in the soup. (I only used about half of what I'd cooked in the soup. The rest will be a side dish of some kind soon. The only seasonings I used in cooking were dehydrated onions and bay leaf.)

The soup was excellent, loosely modeled on this recipe. The wild rice was what was leftover of the Canadian batch I'd cooked early in the week.

[deangold]

Salad w/balsamico, sherry vinegar & olive oil

Conch, blanched 2 minutes and iced, sliced thin, and marinated in lime juice & green onion, then drained and drizzled w/olive oil. Next time I need to drain the conch and let it sit in the strainer longer, and then sit under the olve oil longer to balance the sour of the lime and the sweetness of the conch. I will also try a splash of shio koji. 

Scallops pan seared w/Korean green onion, What was fascinating was that I got all but one scallop that were dry packed and one wet packed {treated to absorb water.} The dry scallops seared and colored up like a dream. The wet scallop was soft to the touch, stuck to the carbon steel pan and did not brown. It was creamy in texture but very bland.

Ginger ice cream {in making this batch I incorporated a lot of air beating the yolks and it shows in the texture. 

[deangold]

Mancini Bucatini w/heirloom tomato sauce, sauteed Korean green onion & leek, shimeji mushrooms, lots of parm

Korean Cucumber with Ume paste

Ginger Ice Cream

Drink: Gibson Hendricks Gin 2z, Dolin 1.5z, Peychaud bitters, Bitter Truth Lemon Bitters. Cocktail onions.

Sazerac: Bourough high rye bourbon, Chartreuse green rinse, Peychaud's bitters, Peychauds whiskey barrel bitters

I forgot to add: Judd's Hill Estate Reserve Cuvee {Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cab Franc}

[dcandohio]

Six of us worked together to create a Mardi Gras feast last night:

Gumbo, roast beef Po boys, eggplant casserole with shrimp and sausage, collard greens cooked with fatback, cornbread, king cake, and bananas foster. Oh, and daiquiris made with fresh strawberries. Also some Abita Purple Haze beer. 
 

[Pat]

That feast ^^^ sounds fun and delicious!  I have a total of one dish I make around Mardi Gras, Italian though. After skipping some years, I plan to make it Tuesday.

Last night was

Radicchio and iceberg salad with luna sweet tomatoes, chopped yellow and green bell pepper, crumbled bacon, and chèvre; vinaigrette
Pan-roasted chicken breast
Sautéed yellow, red, and green bell peppers; broccoli; and, button mushrooms

And, for the first time in quite a while we had dessert: a giant skillet-baked chocolate chip cookie.

 

[deangold]

La style galbi {Shenandoah Valley Beef} marinated in fish sauce and crusted w/cracked pepper.

Rice

Judd's Hill 2001 Estate Cuvee {Cab Sauv, Merlot, Cab Franc}

[Pat]

Leftover salad
Split pea soup (Amy's canned)
Turkey meatloaf sandwiches with gravy and pickled jalapenos
Cape Cod potato chips

Last night was supposed to be an easy dinner. The only effort was going to be turning the last of some leftovers into a small batch of soup in the blender. Upon inspection, said leftovers were of questionable viability. So, canned soup from the pantry to the rescue.

The meatloaf sandwich was surprisingly satisfying. Very simple but the pickled jalapenos really livened it up.

[Pat]

Leftover Christmas Limas in their broth
Chicken and artichokes in white wine sauce
Roasted sesame asparagus

It wasn't a full-on soup, but I served more of the beans in their remaining bean broth that had been supplemented with low sodium chicken broth and heated slowly over low heat with Parmesan rind. This was a nice, warming start to the meal.

I had been digging around in my files for something else to do with skinless, boneless chicken breasts and found the chicken and artichokes recipe. I didn't think I'd ever made it before, but then I realized it carried a "favorite" tag, so I've obviously made it previously and forgot! (It's from 2010.) It was a hit again this time around. The recipe is from this blog, which I just looked at again for the first time in a while.

The asparagus I picked up at Trader Joe's was pencil-thin, super super thin. I cooked it according to a technique at food52, coating it with oil (I used sesame) and seasoning (I used salt, pepper, and sesame seeds) and roasted at 400F for 7 minutes. It came out perfectly. It filled a whole half sheet pan, and I still have half a bunch left in the refrigerator!

[deangold]

My go to Japenese nabe influenced soup.

Water, hon dashi {dashi granules} tamari, mirin, vinegar {this time the persimmon vinegar, but you could use ponzu for the tamari and vinegar components} and this time, ginger juice. The toss ins were Asian leeks, green onions, bamboo shoot, enoki and seafood mushrooms.

Salad {good olive oil, commercial balsamico, sherry vinegar, parmigiano reggiano, salt & pepper}

Thai bananas that you have to let them look black and rotten on the outside but are custardy and soft inside. 

Drink: a Negroni for me: Uncle Val's Restorative gin {a wonderful alternative for those who are fans of Hendricks but not its price,} Cocchi Rosa and Luxardo Aperitivo Americano. Bitters were Bitterman's hopped grapefruit and Bitter Truth cucumber. That cucumber bitters is really cucumbery.

Kay's was a mistake: She used pink gin, Cocchi rosa and Capitoline dry vermouth. Kay sometimes has difficulty remembering which are vermouth types and which are bittering types. So this would probably best be called a reverse martini spin, or a perfect reverse martini for he use of dry white and sweet pink vermouth types.   

She started with Peychaud's whiskey barrel and bitter truth lemon which left the drink harsh, but saved it with grapefruit, Bitter Truth celery. Another example of the power of bitters for good, and for evil. 

[ktmoomau]

All your meals sound delicious!  Tonight was a chicken salad with chickpeas, bell pepper, radish, carrot, feta and green goddess dressing.  

I have made recently: Brunswick stew, ribeye and salad, turkey meatloaf with roasted potatoes and broccoli.  

[deangold]

2 hours ago, ktmoomau said:

All your meals sound delicious! 

If that is directed here, I can't begin to tell you the joy of being able to cook what I want.

[deangold]

Marinated some chicken tenders is fish sauce, grilled yaki niku style served w/wasabi & ponzu

Store bought Japanese eggplant pickles

Rice

Sun's out Hop's out IPA from Solace. 

Trail mix. 

[Pat]

Baby arugula, radicchio, blueberry salad; red wine - honey vinaigrette
Whole wheat sourdough miche; seasoned olive oil (thyme, rosemary, coarse sea salt, coarsely ground black peppercorns, finely ground red peppercorns)
Mardi Gras Pasta

The salad combination was really good. The bread was from Le Pain Quotidien and was just a little bit too dense and too sour. It was okay--it's bread, after all--but not my favorite. I bought a quarter size and that's still fairly big so there's still quite a bit left.

[deangold]

From the freezer

Mushroom enchiladas with tomatillo salsa.

Hops Out Sun's Out IPA from Solace

Old Overholt.

[dcandohio]

23 hours ago, Pat said:

Mardi Gras Pasta

Pasta recipe, please!

[Pat]

The recipe, with some little changes and a bunch of my annotations. The recipe has a huge amount of oil. I cut back some, especially for the almonds. The oil is a crucial component of the flavor of the sauce but, yes, it's a lot.

PASTA  DI CARNEVALE
Mardi Gras Pasta
Source:  _Mimmetta Lomonte's Classic Sicilian Cooking_ (Simon & Schuster, 1990)
Serves 10 [as a first course]
2 large carrots, diced very small
1 medium onion, cut into very small pieces
2 cloves garlic [I crush or mince these, but the recipe doesn't specify]
2/3 cup olive oil, plus 4 tablespoons for toasting almonds
1 1/2 pounds pork loin, boneless, no fat; cut into 7 or 8 slices [I find that fewer, thicker slices shred better at the end.]
1/4 cup dry white wine
12 ounces tomato paste
1 1/2 cups water
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 pounds rigatoni
1 cup whole almonds, skins on, toasted*, crushed coarsely
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon black pepper, finely ground
1 cup grated Pecorino Romano, or other Pecorino such as Sardo or Sicilian, or other sharp cheese [I've substituted Asiago with good results]

In a large skillet over medium-low heat, cook the carrots, onion and garlic in the oil until aromatic.  Increase the heat to high.  Add the pork and sear it. Add the wine, let it evaporate for about 30 seconds, then add tomato paste, 1 1/2 cups water, and salt. Stir well.  Bring to a boil, lower the heat, cover and simmer until the pork can be shredded by pulling it apart with a fork, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Shred the pork, return to the sauce, and set it aside.
Coat a baking dish, approximately 9x12x3 inches with oil. [I don't find this big enough and use my largest lasagna pan.]
Preheat the oven to 375F.
Cook the pasta until al dente. [I've been reserving some pasta water because sometimes the sauce cooks down more than others and can use a little enhancement.] Toss the pasta with the crushed almonds, cinnamon, pepper, meat sauce, and 1/4 cup of the cheese.  [I find that it's best to mix the spices straight into the sauce to spread them evenly. Otherwise, you can end up with spices caked on the pasta.] Pack in the baking dish. Top with the remaining 3/4 cup cheese. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes.  Turn the oven off and let the pasta rest in it for an additional 15 minutes before serving.

* To toast the almonds:  In a heavy cast iron skillet over medium heat, very quickly stir the almonds with 4 tablespoons of olive oil until they crackle. Remove from skillet and blot with paper towels.  Allow almonds to cool before crushing and using. [I do this while the sauce is simmering.]

[deangold]

H Mart in Annandale had a tub of recently disceesed crabs and lobsters. fter smellnig them to make sure there were in fact recently dead, I bought one and took it home ofor steaming. We enjoyed the dearly departed with Veganaise, and yuzo & tamari, some bread from the near by bakery, and a chinese mustard quickly blanched, then marinated in soy, ginger juice, lemon juice, garlic & sriracha.

Draft Makkoli {unfiltered out of a bottle}

Speyside Maccallan 9 year old malt.

[Pat]

Leftover salad
Lentil sloppy joes on whole wheat hamburger buns
Pickles
Cape Cod potato chips

The sloppy joes were a Katie Lee recipe from the food network app. They were pretty good, with mashed avocado as a spread on the buns. Definitely a lot more fiber and less fat than beef sloppy joes but the same kind of flavor.

 

[deangold]

Koji Rice rubbed/cured pork loin slices 3'8" grilled on Yaki Niku grill. I have use Koji Rice as a rub/cure before but this time I leftt he rice coarser when I gourd it in my spice mill. The result was pork with a lot of moisture wicked out into the rice, but less koji flavor. On the other hand, the texture was amazing. Nice chew but no dryness or stringiness. We dipped into wasabi powder moistened w/vinegar, and a dip of yuzu juice & cherry blossom soy sauce.

Boiled beets marinated in yuzu juice, persimmon vinegar, & white soy

Last of our jar of pickled eggplant marinated w/red vinegar & olive oil, w/morrocan flavors 

Ginger ice cream

I have some sweet limes on hand, so Kay squeezed a half into a shaker can with pink gin for a quick and delicious gimlet variation.

Negroni w/pink gin, Luxardo aperitivo Italiano {Aperol knockoff,} Capotoline dry vermouth, Bitter Truth cucumber bitters & Bitterman's hopped grapefruit. The Cuke bitters continue to amaze. Yhey are astoundingly concentrated in flavor and really add an exotic flavor to the drink. 

We tried a couple of over the hill chards in the hope that there might be life left but alas. 

[Pat]

Iceberg and red leaf lettuces, cucumber, radishes, baby beets, shredded carrots; red wine - honey vinaigrette
Leftover chicken and artichokes
Loaded Sweet Potatoes With Black Beans and Cheddar

The sweet potatoes recipe was from the NYT. I don't usually think of cheese with sweet potatoes, but these were pretty good.

[naxos]

5 hours ago, Pat said:

Iceberg and red leaf lettuces, cucumber, radishes, baby beets, shredded carrots; red wine - honey vinaigrette
Leftover chicken and artichokes
Loaded Sweet Potatoes With Black Beans and Cheddar

The sweet potatoes recipe was from the NYT. I don't usually think of cheese with sweet potatoes, but these were pretty good.

I made the sweet potatoes earlier in the week using Cuban style black beans from Trader Joe’s. They were quite good but very filling!

[Pat]

5 hours ago, naxos said:

I made the sweet potatoes earlier in the week using Cuban style black beans from Trader Joe’s. They were quite good but very filling!

I used plain Goya, but I'll have to remember the TJ's Cuban ones. I liked the first potato half so much, I ate two and nothing else. I had planned on having salad and some of the mushroom/artichoke component of the chicken, but the two servings of potatoes filled me right up!

[Pat]

Iceberg and red leaf lettuces, cucumber, radishes, baby beets, shredded carrots, avocado; red wine - honey vinaigrette
Leftover Mardi Gras Pasta
Pan-roasted asparagus with za’ atar

[Pat]

Radicchio, baby arugula, craisins, avocado; red-wine vinaigrette
Baked chicken drumsticks
Mashed potatoes
Red lentil penne, tomatoes, tomato sauce, serrano pepper, hot pepper flakes, black beans, shredded cheddar

Doubled up on the carbs there since the potatoes really had to be used. I'm planning some kind of turkey cottage pie soon with the leftovers now that the potatoes are cooked. The penne was an 8 oz. box, so it didn't make an enormous amount. I thought it would be good vehicle to deploy the excess of beans and tomato sauce I had in the refrigerator. It was. Nice and spicy.

[deangold]

Saturday night" a spin on Mul Naeng Myun that fell short on several levels:

I don't have any water kimchi so I tried to substitute brine from my lactofermented giardinera. Not a great idea.

I forgot to make the mustard sauce until I had completed the dish so I made a quick version and used it without letting it set up and meld, resulting in a pretty harsh flavor.

I grabbed the wrong noodles and we had somen and not buckwheat noodles.

Our banchan were food: Pickled beets w/yuzu; marinated chinese mustard, homemade kimchi.

Makkoli made verything better.

 

[ktmoomau]

On 2/29/2020 at 8:55 PM, Pat said:

 TJ's Cuban ones.

I really like their cuban black beans, and they seem to have something in them that also makes them a bit easier to digest than some others, not sure what.  I am addicted to these.

[ktmoomau]

Well last night, I made wild boar shoulder roast in the instant pot with hoisin, soy, garlic and ginger.  I should have had it cook more, it was a pretty tough cut of meat, but I managed to shred it and it was fine in the sauce, but definitely could have been better if I had cooked it longer and maybe added a little bit of shaoxing wine to break it down even more.  I also made shishito peppers.  We had some leftover jasmine rice, and seaweed salad, so we had rice bowls with all the above.  

Friday night I made garlic, parsley rice with sausage and peppers.  Right now my freezer is pretty full for the stocking I am doing for my SIL, and then I have some odd ball things I need to use... I feel like it is a bit disjointed, but it will all come together.

[deangold]

Rice

Japanese eggplant pickles; home pickled beets; marinated Chinese mustard green. 

Kay had leftover lamb hot pot from Sichuan Jin River and I had snacked all day on left overs.  

Solace Hops Out Sun's Out. We have a new Solace for our next beer.

[Pat]

BBQ shrimp and lentils
Leftover spicy red lentil penne topped with baked salmon
Steamed broccoli

I bought 3/4 pound of fairly large white shrimp, shells on, at Whole Foods, as well as half a pound of sockeye salmon. The salmon got treated to salt, pepper, lemon juice, and 10 minutes in the oven at 375. The shrimp got a few minutes (until just pink) boiling in some seasoned water and then tossed in with leftover lentil sloppy joe mixture I'd boosted with a couple tablespoons of Bulls-Eye bbq sauce. I tossed everything around together over low heat for a couple minutes and then served.

The shrimp were very sloppy, as expected, but also very good. No butter in this, so it wasn't really bbq shrimp, but it worked out even better than I expected.