Dinner - The Polyphonic Food Blog

[deangold]

Shrimp steamed in the rice cooker. We haave now finished tht 2# bag of shrimp from Restaurant Depot. Need another!

Salad with salad greens, cukes & hothouse tomato from Spring Valley, kalamata olives. The dressing was the leftover leek infused oil from our tofu from last night, ume paste, ume-shiso vinegar. 

Spiced chocolate gelato. 

Corpse Revivers w/Broker's gin, fresh lime, Cocchi Americano & Luxardo triplum & Luxardo cherry. I washed the glass with Elixir Novasalus which worked surprisingly well. I don't have absinthe and I am not enough of a fan to go buy some, so we have used Chartreuse, Dimmi, and now Novasalus. 

Shot of Templeton. The less water I add to it before sipping, the better I like it. I did not add any water tonight but I htink a tiny drop rounds out the alcohol. All in all, I am not impressed with Templeton.

Spot had Pizza. 

[naxos]

How do you steam shrimp in a rice cooker?

[Pat]

Stir-fried pork, broccoli, onion, and bell pepper strips
Leftover jalapeño mac and cheese

I used some of the leftovers from Thursday's pork chops in the stir-fry but decided to go with a smaller batch scenario so we're not eating the leftovers for days. Remaining pork usage TBD.

[deangold]

13 hours ago, naxos said:

How do you steam shrimp in a rice cooker?

The rice cooker comes with a steamer basket. Put 2 cups of water int he rice cooker pan, then the shrimp in the steamer basket above. Fastest boiling water I know. No heat in the kitchen like stove top. I do the same with my Waring Cooker if I want to steam more. 

[deangold]

Salad with marinated artichoke, kalamata, barajas spicy mix, shallot oil & balsamico.

Udon in Dashi Broth flavored w/Korean brewed soy sauce, mirin, Chinese black vinegar w/mushrooms and spinach leftovers from the other night. Have enough Dashi broth to do it again tomorrow!

2.5 little lamb meatballs that just finished cooking in the tomato & onion sauce we used to use in the Fra Diavolo at the Grotto. 

[dcandohio]

Shrimp Arribbiata over zucchini noodles. I rough chopped two medium tomatoes, and cooked them down on high heat with roasted garlic that I had in the refrigerator, red wine, anchovy paste, tomato paste, lots of chili flake and Italian seasoning. I added red Argentinian shrimp from Trader Joe’s (defrosted, high quality) at the last minute, and zapped the zucchini noodles, which had been squeezed in paper towels,  in the microwave for one minute. Topped with Parmesan cheese, it was a spicy, quick, low-carb lunch. 

[deangold]

A leisurely dinner after a lot of cooking and prepping the past two days. 

Cocktail: Orri Mandarin Daiquiri- mandarine juice, juice of 2 mexican key limes and the zest of the lmes, brown sugar symple, 2.5 oz Cotton & Reed Dry Spiced Rum. SHaken vigorously, double strained. 

Cheese & crackers part 1: Brillat Savarin at the point of perfection. right on the edge between unctuous and runny. 

Beet & Other Green Soup: We have 3 kinds of beets candy or Chioggia, red & yellow. So I took the greens plus the greens from a bunch of hakurei turnips, kohlrabi, & 2 bunches of radish. All  from Barajas, except for the Kohlrabi which was a new farm for me: I want to say Starstead but I am not sure. Then added a lot of ginger, garlic, carrot & onion, Tuscan Jewish spice blend, crushed canned tomato, water, veggie broth, Trinidadian hot sauce. Cooked it for a while until the greens were well cooked and lost any sense of crispness and got that well-cooked, soft, sweetness that al dente veggies lack. 

Wine: The rest of the bottle of Panther Creek 1986 that had been coravined overnight. Even better tonight!

Lamb Meatballs: When I started to make this, I was thinking meatloaf so I soaked some panko in milk. Then I made meatballs resulting in a very wet mix that needed far to muc panko to get to rolling stage. The result was a slightly pasty but incredibly moist meatball. So I finally use wet panko, dry panko, an egg, 2 spring onions sauteed from Barajas, lots of ginger & garlic, fresh oregano & thyme, enthusiastic cracked black pepper. Browned the meatballs in olive oil and then simmered for an hour in Fra Diavolo tomato sauce. Then we left them over night and reheated them today. Really good if just ever so off in texture and weight.

Cheese & Cracers #2: Castelmagno w/Stones Wheat Thins. 

Drop of Templeton Rye.

SPot had pizza, water, lots of ear scritches. 

By the way, Spot has his own Twitter account: 

Spot_the_Cat   @SpottheCat6

He mostly trash talks about me and his cat mom. Ingrate!

He is not yet an Instacat. But he will accept food in exchange for being an influencer when he gets around to it. 

[Pat]

Romaine, radishes, bacon, cucumber, orange bell pepper, and avocado; vinaigrette
Ravioli stuffed with baby arugula and Parmesan in a vodka cream sauce
Sun-dried tomato chicken sausages
Creamed spinach

Both the ravioli and sausages were from Trader Joe’s. The pasta sauce was halved from a popular Ina Garten recipe for penne. I think I should have just made the whole recipe and used half because it really cooks down, and it was hard working with the increasingly small amount. It was, however, the right amount of sauce for 8.8 ounces of ravioli.

[dracisk]

My husband steamed mussels in a white wine, butter, shallot, and basil sauce for dinner last night. The mussels needed more cleaning (some were a bit gritty), but overall they were quite delicious. It was our first time making mussels at home. He bought the mussels at H Mart in Wheaton. He also made French fries and French bread, all from scratch. I washed everything down with some Kirkland sauvignon blanc because I'm classy like that.

[ktmoomau]

Last week was a really busy work week for me, so Hubby mainly ate delivery pizza and leftover delivery pizza. But he grilled out some, as well:

We had T-bone steak, zucchini on the grill with parsley potatoes. 

Then bbq chicken and veggie kabobs. 

I then took the leftover kabob bits and chopped them up, sauteed in the skillet for a little crunch, and put them on top of a salad with leaf lettuce, feta and lemon vinaigrette.  

I made- yakisoba with shrimp, roasted onion and pepper, pickled ginger, spinach and egg, which I am eating cold today for lunch.

And then yesterday was breakfast tacos for lunch with the leftover potatoes that I fried, last of the spinach, peppers, onions, bacon, scrambled eggs.

 

 

 

[Pat]

Tonight we had...
Sweet potato and feta borek
Romaine, radishes, bacon, cucumber, chickpeas, orange bell pepper, walnuts, pickled raisins, and avocado; sesame soy ginger vinaigrette
Roasted salmon with red pepper mayonnaise
Roasted carrots and broccoli

The borek were last of the seemingly endless supply in the freezer. It was amazing how well they held up. At the time I made them it involved more work than I felt like doing once I'd started the project, and it seemed like there was no way we'd eat them all. A lot of them went into the freezer. Never did I imagine they'd be a cool little item to pull out from the freezer during a pandemic.

When inventorying the freezer a couple weeks ago, I found two (6 oz.ish) pieces of frozen salmon I'd bought at Whole Foods more than 5 years ago that I'd forgotten was still in there. It held up reasonably well to the storage and cooked up fine but not spectacular. Since I had an open jar of red bell peppers to use I dug out an old recipe from The Uncommon Gourmet that goes with poached salmon, a simple red pepper mayo. So a pink sauce took center stage at dinner two nights in a row. (It was also good on the vegetables.)

[deangold]

Salad with marinated artichoke, hearts of palm, olives, balsamico & oil from the artichokes. The artichokes came from a huge jar of commercial quality artichokes with stems. The chokes pretty good but the industrial oil they came in was rank. So we drained them and repacked them in a huge jar with tons of 'stuff' and the everyday oil we used at the Grotto along with fresh herbs, garlic, dried oregano & chile. They have been marinating for weeks now and really good. When we are done, we will refill the jar with a new batch. 

Pasta w/mixed Asian mushrooms, green onions, garlic & ginger. We ahve a fabulous pasta brand we are loving, Opera, but tonight's shape was not the best. We finished the bag at least. They are pasta 'lillies' and the uneven thickness means almost none of the pasta can be al dente. 

Japanese soy pickles. We have been waiting on this for 3 weeks or so. This is just a marinated pickle, not a fermented one. I took the veggies and salted them for a few minutes very lightly. Just enough to flavor and not to ferment. Then we added out mix of soy, vinegar, mirin & spices. After the batch is done, we strain the liquid and reuse it beefing it up with more vinegar. These are refrigerator piackles.

A very poor biscotto from TJs. If it had been sold as a gingersnap bar they would have been quite good for that, but they simply were not biscotti and our jones for a biscotto will go unfulfilled. 

Spot has his usual pizza but the dry food was supplemented by TJ's cat treats. They actually got him to follow me around the apartment and even rise up on his hind paws to eat them. Finally he realized he had be played and he put his paw on my wrist and just flashed his claws and I let him have the last one. He knows who is boss. Definitely. 

[Mark Dedrick]

I smoked a lamb shoulder on Sunday for the first time. Served it with kind of a faux mint chimichurri. It was fantastic. I'll definitely be doing that again. 

[DIShGo]

Scallops with fennel grenobloise, and dark-chocolate-dipped strawberries and bananas and  a black plum for dessert.

 

[deangold]

Salad w/olive oil, lemon & parm

Japanese ickles: purple eggplant pickles, yellow pickle, homemade soy pickles with a really good kikusui Jumai Ginjo sake.

Meatballs w/a touhc of parm w/more sake.

Brilliat Savarin w/Atwater Sourdough and Stoned Wheat Thins. 

Spot had pizza and chow, with a glass of fine water, Chateau Alexandria I believe. Then the the little so and so jumped up on Kay's chair just because she had cat treats. This is the first time he has every jumped up on either of our chairs and the turncoat went to his cat mom. So I went into the bedroom, where he retired to his bed, and gave him a stern talking to. Then he offered me his head and I scrattched his ear until he had anough and he dismissed me. Again, I taught him who is the boss. 

[Pat]

I reheated the last of the pork (sliced this go-round) and cabbage, apples, and onions last night but enhanced it with some hot curry powder and cream. The curry, not surprisingly, complemented the ingredients well. We had this with cauliflower in a mustard cheese sauce.

[ktmoomau]

Last night was spinach stuffed shells that I had put away in the freezer.  I probably should have let them bake a bit longer, as the sauce was a tiny bit soupy, but it was still very good, and we ate it.  I would have also loved some garlic bread, but didn't plan ahead to make any bread.

[dracisk]

My husband smoked chicken and shrimp and made salsa and we had tacos with salsa and sour cream on flour tortillas.

[Mark Dedrick]

2 hours ago, ktmoomau said:

Last night was spinach stuffed shells that I had put away in the freezer.  I probably should have let them bake a bit longer, as the sauce was a tiny bit soupy, but it was still very good, and we ate it.  I would have also loved some garlic bread, but didn't plan ahead to make any bread.

The "Not having bread because I didn't plan ahead enough to bake it" has been a consistent theme for me the past two months. A number of days of "Oops, we can't make sandwiches today for lunch because I got tired and didn't bake last night."

[Katya4me]

6 minutes ago, Mark Dedrick said:

The "Not having bread because I didn't plan ahead enough to bake it" has been a consistent theme for me the past two months. A number of days of "Oops, we can't make sandwiches today for lunch because I got tired and didn't bake last night."

I actually just started the bread machine because I'm now out of grits and I like to have those or toast for breakfast.  WashPost had a recipe today for egg in a hole, using spiced olive oil, so that was my incentive. 

Last night was shredded honey garlic chicken over leftover baked cheese grits. 

[ktmoomau]

31 minutes ago, Mark Dedrick said:

The "Not having bread because I didn't plan ahead enough to bake it" has been a consistent theme for me the past two months. A number of days of "Oops, we can't make sandwiches today for lunch because I got tired and didn't bake last night."

Yes, we have squishy store bought white bread for Hubby, and I will resort to a sandwich on such bread.  But to me that isn't really bread.  This is super ridiculous, as there is no bake bread I like to make that is ridiculously easy.  And it can do a retarded rise in the fridge for days.  Really no excuse.  And I could also order delicious bread from Junction.  I just find that having to do all the things around the home- cooking, cleaning, ordering things so far ahead, work, and just dealing with the everyday anxiety of all this, I just lose momentum that in normal times I would likely have.  I think Wapo might have posted the no-knead recipe I use even.  Well I feel better in that at least I am not alone on that.  But maybe this will be the inspiration I need to do it tonight.  I have lots of flour and a decent amount of yeast in reserve.

[saf]

Today is one of those days that I am glad I keep extra meals in the freezer. I do not want to cook tonight. So, frozen leftover pasta sausage bake. I will make fresh salads though. Those don't freeze. Also nice herb focaccia from Ravenhook from last Saturday's farm market.

[dwt]

26 minutes ago, saf said:

I do not want to cook tonight.

I feel the same. Haven't informed the SO that dinner will be leftovers. If I get significant push-back, I might need to step up my game in the interest of domestic tranquillity😉

Last night, I fired up the charcoal grill for the first time in months and slow cooked/hot smoked Atlantic salmon fillets, which turned out nicely. Sides were steamed fresh asparagus and leftover spaghetti with mushroom sauce.

[saf]

17 minutes ago, dwt said:

fired up the charcoal grill

steamed fresh asparagus

Luckily for me, the husband loves to grill. Give him even a tiny bit of a chance, and he will spend all Sunday afternoon in the back yard with the grill, a radio, and a cigar. Whole chickens are his favorite - they take so long! Also, he is a bit of a roasted chicken fiend. Although, this year is less his idea of heaven with no baseball to listen to. But as long as Sunday's weather is good, Sunday night is grilled dinner. When pepper season comes, I buy lots of Anaheim peppers, and make him grill them so I can make lots of chilis rellenos. Some to freeze, some for that week.

Asparagus grills beautifully.

[deangold]

Crudite & salsa verde

Left over greens soup w/tomato.

Marinated Beets from Barajan {candy stripe w/champagne vinegar & olive oil, golden beets w/lime, tangerine & sesame oil, red beets w/red wine vinegar * olive oil}

Steamed Shrimp w/ leftover mint sauce from last nights Indian dinner. . These are also from Restaurant Depot but are 8/12 and they taste even better. 

Split a Hops Out Suns Out.

2 Ric Flairs. 

[Pat]

Salad with vinaigrette (romaine, radishes, bacon, cucumber, Campari tomatoes, feta, toasted walnuts)
Potato and corn chowder
Quinoa with sauteed mushrooms, garlic, and kale slaw, drizzled with red pepper mayo, and topped with halved hard-boiled egg

I sort of followed a recipe for the quinoa dish but very loosely. I had asked for bagged kale in a recent grocery order, and the substitution was an organic kale, carrot, cabbage salad. I wilted that in the pan after browning the mushrooms as per the recipe and it worked fine. It made the dish more colorful than if I had used the plain kale that was called for.

The quinoa cooked in the broth I made from pork chop bones and the last of my homemade chicken stock went into the chowder. Other than that and the bacon, the meal was practically vegetarian 😁.

[Mark Dedrick]

Tell me about these Campari tomatoes. 

[Katya4me]

Last night was a cheese tray.  Manchego and Rosemary Asiago cheese w/ Spanish chorizo.  I'd smoked some tofu last weekend, but didn't like how it turned out, so it's been sitting in the fridge.  But we made tofu salad with it and the smoky flavor came through and it was fantastic that way.  The final element was woven wheat crackers to go w/ everything.

[Pat]

9 hours ago, Mark Dedrick said:

Tell me about these Campari tomatoes. 

Sunset's Campari are the best I've found for off-season tomatoes, greenhouse grown, company headquartered in Canada. The ones I've been using most recently were from Costco, but they're carried fairly widely. They're not full-sized tomatoes but they are juicy, flavorful, and come vine-on. They keep pretty well.

[Mark Slater]

What about Kumato?

 

[deangold]

Thursday:

Crudite & salsa verde

Left over greens soup w/tomato.

Marinated Beets from Barajan {3 colors & 3 marinades}

Steamed Shrimp

[deangold]

Roasted Asparagus with spice rub, salt, olive oil, crushed garlic.

Beef Kebabs roasted in the oven: ground beef, mint, parsley, cilantro, crushed garlic, chopped garlic, grated MD feta from shepherds creamery, sauteed purple spring onion & chopped garlic, and formed into small cigars. Served w/leben w/mint, parsley, toasted black cumin, preserved lemon and Fermented chili hot sauce, olive oil, kalamata olives. 

red beets w/red wine vinegar & olive oil.

 

[Pat]

7 hours ago, Mark Slater said:

What about Kumato?

 

I've had them and liked them but don't have a strong opinion. I think maybe they usually come in smaller packages when I see them and that's why I don't buy them as much. Possibly there's also a subliminal effect in that Campari are bright red and Kumato are darker and look more like heirloom tomatoes to me.

Tonight was a leftovers meal. I really did not feel like cooking. We had the last of the salad from last night, more potato corn chowder and a container of lamb merguez sausages with white beans and bacon that I defrosted from the freezer _{(originally from 2017).}

[dwt]

On 5/14/2020 at 7:47 PM, saf said:

Although, this year is less his idea of heaven with no baseball to listen to.

I miss baseball: the ballpark, the radio with Dave and Charlie, TV with Bob and FP,, and the wonderful team that awarded us with countless moments of joy last season. sigh!

Tonight was NY strip steak on the gas grill (feeling too lazy to do charcoal). I made the unfortunate choice of serving WholePaycheck 365 organic couscous, lemon and herb flavored. The lemon tasted phony, like truffle oil versus actual truffles. This was accompanied by a simple salad of arugula and hothouse tomatoes with vinaigrette. I think I could eat arugula every day and not get tired of it.

[deangold]

Crudite & dips: green chutney & last of the raita from IndAroma, homemade salsa verde.

The last of the St Andre. Stoned wheat thins. 

Arugula w/lemon, olive oil, a drop of fish sauce, parm. 

Chicken breast marinated in shiokoji, fish sauce, dusted with toasted cumin powder. Grilled on the YakiNiku grill. 

Vinco Biancoperso Bianco. Orange wine with a touch of fizz. 

 

[Pat]

Tonight's from the freezer adventure was Paprika Chicken with Chickpeas, three months older than last night's meal and it did not hold up as well. It was ok and edible, but the highlight of the meal was a second dish I made to accompany, figuring that would be the entire meal if the freezer meal didn't work out.

The faux risotto was really good. I made note of it when I saw it on a quarantine edition of The Pioneer Woman this morning and decided to give it a whirl. I modified the recipe some but didn't change the essential elements.

The original recipe for the leftovers is worth another go. It was good the first time around. I'll have to add it to a menu when I have the chicken thighs.

[dwt]

Last night I conflated two traditional pasta sauces: Arrabbiata and Amatriciana. I had a leftover slice of North Country Smokehouse organic applewood-smoked bacon which, when I found it  lurking in the fridge, became the inspiration for the dish. The rest of the ingredients were a mish-mash of those that go into the two traditional sauces and a couple of outliers: garlic, onion (actually shallot), red pepper flakes, parsley, white wine, and parmigiano (wish I had some Romano, which would have improved the flavor). I used dried fettucine instead of the more traditional bucattini or penne. I thought it turned out rather well, worthy of at least a C+. On the side was steamed fresh organic broccoli.

That bacon, BTW, is quite good (found it at WF). It has a little brown sugar and molasses in the mix, but it doesn't come across as sweet. The  smoke/salt/fat/sugar flavors are nicely balanced.

[deangold]

Salad w/Barajas Romaine, anchovy, marinated artichoke heart, green & kalamata olives, canned tuna, lemon juice, olive oil, rosemary-garlic oil. Atwater bread to soak up the dressing.

Soup: kohlrabi leaves & stems {barajas} onion, guanciale, canned plum tomato crushed, beans, garlic, rosemary, mandarin zest, parsley, spice rub, lamb & rosemary sausage from Smith Meadows. Started by sweating the guanciale, onion, garlic & herbs. Added tomato & water but kept it thick. Next, I poached the sausage in the tomato, onion, guanciale & kohlrabi stem mix until they were fully cooked and then set aside. Finished the soup using water instead of any stock. Cooked the heck out of everything until both the leaves and steams of the kohlrabi were melting soft. Then sliced one sausage into our portion and froze the rest. 

When we buy bunched veggies at the market the big bonus is the greens. Today's shop included not only the Kohlrabi greens, but radish greens and turnip greens as well. When you buy veggies at the market, the greens rarely are delicate enough or tender enough to cook. 

Hops Out, Sun's Out solace IPA. 

 

[LauraB]

On 5/8/2020 at 4:54 PM, Mark Dedrick said:

On Wednesday night I made pozole. It was really outstanding, and we'll get two lunches out of it as well. 

Looks fantastic!  Can you share the recipe?  Also, what kind of hominey did you use?  Thanks!

[Pat]

Quinoa grain bowl with tahini vinaigrette
Burgers on homemade sandwich rolls; banana peppers, pickled red onions, dill pickle slices
TJ's french fries

The quinoa salad was adapted from this recipe for a barley grain bowl, simply because I already had cooked quinoa. The substitution worked but the barley would be a little heftier for holding up to the dressing. Great concept, good flavors.

The burgers were made from Red Apron ground beef and, wow, were they good. Instead of making regular burger buns, I made a "quick" recipe for sandwich rolls. After baking a lot of bread over the years, I haven't made bread in quite a while. While the dough for this came together beautifully, it took longer to rise than alleged, and the final rolls were kind of heavy and filling. They had somewhat the texture of English muffins, but heavy (if that makes any sense).

[Mark Dedrick]

13 hours ago, LauraB said:

Looks fantastic!  Can you share the recipe?  Also, what kind of hominey did you use?  Thanks!

It was not exactly this recipe, but this is an approximation. I cut the pork shoulder into chunks rather than braising it whole. And I used canned hominy because that's what I had in my pantry. https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/posole-rojo-recipe-2119122 

[deangold]

Gemelli pasta with shrimp, sauteed greens, garlic.

Chocolate gelato.

We made two otherwise identical Martinez, one with Broker's gin and the other with Hayman's Old Tom. I liked the Old Tom version better, Kay the Broker's. We also doubled the Marachino Luxardo to 1/2 oz. We used Cocchi Vermouth di Torino and next time a richer vemrouth is in order. 

[Pat]

Vegetarian chili (from Evening Star via NRG Provisions)
Black bean and cheese quesadillas with sour cream and cilantro

[Katya4me]

Last night was salt & pepper chicken over rice.  We had some basil paste, but no fresh basil leaves.  So we put some of the paste in the batter and sprinkled nori over afterwards.  I loved how easy it was to make as the marinade was incorporated into the batter and then no deep frying required.  I'll definitely put basil in the batter again as I really liked how it added to the flavor.  We made Palomas to go w/ the meal and ice cream sandwiches for dessert.

[saf]

Tonight was our usual salad (lettuce, fruit, cheese, nuts. Strawberries are the current fruit, pistachios the current nuts), followed by this quiche, with asparagus rather than broccoli. Hey, seasonal eating!

I would make the quiche again in a second, although it was a blue cheese bomb. Even the blue cheese fiend I live with thinks it should have a mix of cheese.

Yeah, using down the back stock of things in the house. Puff pastry has been sitting the freezer for a while. 

[Katya4me]

Last night was a massive salad.  We had a bunch of veggies in the drawer including some celery and 2 romaine hearts that needed using up, so all went into a bowl along w/ the last of the salt & pepper chicken.  It was delicious and exactly what I wanted last night.

[Pat]

Turkey noodle soup
Whole wheat toast and butter
Leftover quinoa grain bowl with tahini dressing
Cheese, black bean, and roasted pepper omelette

The soup was a freezer rerun from post-Thanksgiving 2016. I tried to compensate for freezer blandness by adding a smattering of hot pepper flakes, which helped but was maybe a touch too heavy-handed. I'll go a little lighter on the added heat with the next container I defrost.
 

[deangold]

Tuesday

Dashi soup w/enoki mushrooms, radish greens, cabbage, tofu. king oyster mushrooms, soy & lemon.

Octopus in soy, lemon & wasabi

Pickles: yellow japanese pickle, homemade soy pickler, homemade water kimchi

Makkoli

Chocolate gelato

[dwt]

9 hours ago, Pat said:

>Turkey noodle soup
Oh man, that sounds so comforting. I'd love some right now. Been cooking some pretty bland stuff this week because my favorite person in the whole world is having digestive issues from medical treatment.  I'll post again when I'm able to gin up something more interesting than frozen beer-battered cod fillets (Monday) and plain buttered noodles (last night)😉

 

[saf]

11 hours ago, deangold said:

Tuesday

...

But what did Spot have?