Dinner - The Polyphonic Food Blog

[Anna Blume]

Salad of oak leaf lettuce, red & golden beets, goat cheese & toasted walnuts al Hersch

Butternut squash gratin w roasted garlic, onions caramelized w sage & thyme, topped w fresh breadcrumbs (modification of recipe from Deborah Madison)

Le Puy lentils, inspired by Heather, cooked w diced mirepoix, garlic, parsley & some chicken stock

Apple

____________________________________________________

Sources for ingredients listed below in order of appearance:

Salad: Twin Springs Farm, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods. Vinegar: Rodman's; EVOO: TJs; S & P: WF

Gratin: Safeway, TJs (never again), Brookville & Giant, TJs (best place for herbs), Safeway & WF; see above for EVOO, etc. Gruyere, Grana & butter: WF

Lentils: WF, TJs, Brookville & Giant. Chicken in stock: WF.

Dessert: Pink Lady from Giant

[rkduggins]

Leftover pan fried pork chops turned into barbecue sandwiches with Gold's horserasish for a kick. Who else here thinks that barbecue is happiness on a bun?

[legant]

Bought a shoulder and had it cut into very thick slices.

Is this the cut you're referring to?

How was it sold: rolled into a roast or were the chops tied? What was the price/lbs? Was there an upcharge for slicing? Hungry stomachs want to know.

lamb shoulder roast = lamb square-cut shoulder = lamb shoulder block Notes: This is a tasty roast, but it's very hard to carve with the bone in. To make carving easier, butchers will bone it and sell it as a boneless rolled shoulder, or they'll slice the roast into blade chops and then tie them together as a pre-sliced shoulder roast = pre-carved shoulder roast. A pre-sliced roast is convenient, but it tends to dry out in the oven.

[Xochitl10]

Omaha Steaks sole fillet stuffed with "scallops and crabmeat," and recipe #3 from "Nigella Bites:" Double Potato and Halloumi Bake. I substituted feta, and I rather like it. Can't say it goes particularly well with the sole, but so it goes.

[legant]

When does an "adapted" recipe become your own?

Chinese style roasted chicken thighs with the following changes: slathered the thighs with a mixture of garlic and ginger paste (leftover from my Indian cooking phase), Tamari, honey, and rice wine vinegar; then coated in Panko and baked.

Stir-fried asparagus tossed in sesame oil, sesame seeds and Tamari

Baked sweet potato

[Pat]

Thursday night was herb crusted pork loin roast stuffed with prunes and served with Quick Whole Wheat and Molasses Bread (the lighter version of the Bittman recipe, using honey and buttermilk, to which I also added some currants). That bread was a nice accompaniment to the pork

I reheated slices of leftover pork loin last night and served them a mushroom sherry-cream sauce. The original roast was a double loin roast, so this made nice thick double boneless pork chops. We also had toasted Parmesan-garlic bread. I've really got to start making vegetables again .

[porcupine]

A very large glass of Domaine de la Pepiere 2005 Muscadet. Yep, just that. God, it's been a long week.

[txaggie]

Dinner tonight was roasted chicken (Thomas Keller's method), roasted baby carrots, and potato rosti. The wine was Chateau Mourgues du Gres 2005 Fleur d'Eglantine. A good meal before the Cherry Blossom 10-Miler tomorrow.

[Jacques Gastreaux]

Grilled flank steak sourced from My Butcher, sauteed suger snap peas and twice baked potatoes. Chateau Pontet-Canet Pauillac 2000.

[Al Dente]

Nice and easy pasta dish: Tagliatelle with slices of chorizo, broccoli rabe, cherry tomatoes, and plenty of red pepper flakes. Something about sausage and broccoli rabe is so damn good. What was not good was the produce vendor at Eastern Market trying to sell me about 1/3 lb of the rabe for $12. Jeebus, she's a sweet ol' lady and all, but WTF? I got a pound instead from the vendor down near the bakery area for $3.50.

[zoramargolis]

Steamed artichokes, served cold with Meyer lemon vinaigrette

Charcoal roasted, herb-brined chicken

(Grilled garlic-shiitake tofu for Vegi-teen)

Braised chard

Cheese grits

Pear-almond tart with brown butter, vanilla ice cream

2005 AWS (American Winetaster's Society) Mendocino County Pinot Noir

[Heather]

Rare grilled steak (Thanks Michael), baked potato, green salad. Lemon sorbet (no dairy) for dessert.

[Xochitl10]

Minestrone, hearty fresh-baked bread, and mixed greens with vinaigrette.

[legant]

Sometimes, the simplest things are the best: Linguini with (canned) tuna & spinach, and lots of olive oil, garlic and red pepper flakes.

ETA: Giving credit where credit is due.

[Pat]

Every dinner has its story, or something like that . I went to make dinner last night and saw several ingredients I really needed to turn into something quickly before they got even with me by going bad.

plum tomatoes

button mushrooms

random garlic cloves starting to get green inside

the remaining half of a huge onion

an open container half-and-half from early March

an open container of chicken broth

a very expired egg that was still sitting in a bowl I had put it in long ago when I was going to use it for something else

a package of corn grits that had started to split open in the freezer

one Pillsbury premade pie crust*

So...I made a polenta pie: premade pie crust in the bottom of a glass baking dish; crust filled about 1/3 - 1/2 way with polenta made with chicken broth and finished with half-and-half; then a layer of sauteed mushrooms, tomatoes, onions, and garlic with a premixed Penzey's herb mix (basil, oregano, garlic, and thyme); topped with grated romano cheese. It came out really well. The refrigerator is getting emptied out enough that it might get cleaned sometime soon

*remaining from last fall when I had apples that were starting to rot and wanted to make a quick pie without making crust. The package was dated December something.

[tripewriter]

A great group-cooked dinner this past Saturday night, to kick off the 2007 grillin' season:

Marinated, grilled & sliced skirt steak

Roasted potatoes with garlic and smoked paprika

Aoili

Blanched asparagus and sliced strawberries in a clementine vinaigrette

:-D

[jm chen]

My first-ever tri tip, dry-rubbed and broiled, served with corn salsa, sauteed mushrooms, and asparagus. Mmmm. $5/lb. All hail Trader Joe's.

[Heather]

Grilled burgers, with store bought crinkle-cut fries.

[legant]

Damn you people! All of you!

I was perfectly happy with my McNuggets and Whoppers. Then you had to introduce me to: Corduroy, Circle Bistro’s burger, Dino, Hitching Post’s “mutant” chicken and – worst of all – polenta! Dammit! Now, just the thought of a Ruby Tuesday burger makes me gag!

With that in mind, I tried Keller’s roasted chicken tonight. To put it in perspective, I have never – EVER – cooked a whole chicken; I’ve been content with chicken parts, favoring the dark meat, or perfectly satisfied with WF’s roasted chicken. I was a bit worried about the amount of salt, but I proceeded, boldly, and dumped a whole tablespoon of Kosher salt on the thing. (I had to read the instructions several times over to make sure it wasn’t 1 teaspoon.)

The verdict: pretty good; the skin wasn’t as crisp as I would have liked. And, my tongue still burns from the salt. Would I do it again: you betcha. I probably won’t use Keller’s recipe, but I will experiment with other’s. Yup, you guessed it: future late night readings will focus on the poultry entries in Cook’s Illustrated, Bon Appetit, and Fine Cooking.

I had promised to share the chicken with a neighbor. So, at 11:07 p.m., I’m sneaking through the hallways with this big ol’ plate of chicken. Although I told her I would deliver it tomorrow, after tasting there was no guarantee that the chicken would have made it through the night.

The question remains: what to do with all of those Swanson TV dinners?

[Pat]

I made an Ethiopian meal again last night, only this time fewer dishes and a smaller quantity of food. If I gauged this correctly, I should have just about the right amount of injera left to match the quantity of leftover food .

Yegomen Kitfo (collards with spiced cottage cheese)

Yebeg Alicha (mild lamb stew with onions and green peppers)

Yetakelt Wat (spicy mixed vegetable stew)

[zoramargolis]

Composed Salad for a Warm Spring Evening:

Mesclun, baby spinach and oakleaf dressed with Meyer lemon vinaigrette

Tomato

Avocado

Tuna

Sardine

Cucumber

Hard-boiled egg

Feta

Olives

Pepperoncini

2005 Oxford Landing Viognier

We can eat outside because the mosquitoes haven't yet arrived!

[Barbara]

Damn you people! All of you!

I was perfectly happy with my McNuggets and Whoppers. Then you had to introduce me to: Corduroy, Circle Bistro’s burger, Dino, Hitching Post’s “mutant” chicken and – worst of all – polenta! Dammit! Now, just the thought of a Ruby Tuesday burger makes me gag!

With that in mind, I tried Keller’s roasted chicken tonight. To put it in perspective, I have never – EVER – cooked a whole chicken; I’ve been content with chicken parts, favoring the dark meat, or perfectly satisfied with WF’s roasted chicken. I was a bit worried about the amount of salt, but I proceeded, boldly, and dumped a whole tablespoon of Kosher salt on the thing. (I had to read the instructions several times over to make sure it wasn’t 1 teaspoon.)

The verdict: pretty good; the skin wasn’t as crisp as I would have liked. And, my tongue still burns from the salt. Would I do it again: you betcha. I probably won’t use Keller’s recipe, but I will experiment with other’s. Yup, you guessed it: future late night readings will focus on the poultry entries in Cook’s Illustrated, Bon Appetit, and Fine Cooking.

I had promised to share the chicken with a neighbor. So, at 11:07 p.m., I’m sneaking through the hallways with this big ol’ plate of chicken. Although I told her I would deliver it tomorrow, after tasting there was no guarantee that the chicken would have made it through the night.

The question remains: what to do with all of those Swanson TV dinners?

Gillian Clark was featured in an early Source article where she roasted a chicken for a crowd. She also used a Tablespoon of salt. I made the recipe as written, but found that the salt made any sauce from the pan juices inedible. There are better ways to roast a chicken, IMHO.

RE: the TV dinners. I'll bet you have some elderly neighbors (particularly of the single, male variety) who could use them.

[Anna Blume]

RE: the TV dinners. I'll bet you have some elderly neighbors (particularly of the single, male variety) who could use them.

I'll take the brownie, Legant, if you've got the meatloaf dinner.

* * *

I resurrected the last Moosewood cookbook I ever bought to make Tauhu Goreng Kechap, an Indonesian dish with deep-fried tofu.

A few nights ago I deep-fried the tofu until it developed a wonderful golden crust and creamy interior, but gained a pound. Deep-frying light tofu is a bit like Diet Coke with pizza anyway, so last night I compromised by stir-frying the thin triangles of drained tofu and was pleased with the results, especially since a number of contrasting textures remained.

The best thing about this vegan dish is the simple sauce since it has the entire range of tastes: salty, sweet, sour & hot. Use your own judgment for proportions in mixing together:

• A light Japanese soy sauce
  
• Lime juice
  
• Chili Garlic Sauce (Vietnamese; Rooster logo)
  
• Just a little sugar
  
• Minced shallots & garlic (more of former than latter)
  

I stir-fried lots of shallot rings in peanut oil until they began to brown, then added minced garlic and the whites of scallions and the tofu. When the tofu was completely warm and the texture became silky, I tossed in rings of scallion greens.

This was plated on top of brown rice. Sprinkle on sauce. Pile on blanched Mung beans (fill strainer w the bean sprouts and hold in boiling hot water for no longer than 30 seconds before plunging into an ice bath) and decorate plate with thin seeded cucumber slices. More sauce. Chopped roasted peanuts and reserved scallion rings.

[Xochitl10]

Hendrick's Aviation, chicken and prosciutto tortellini with pesto, and mixed greens with vinaigrette. And the Idol.

[edenman]

Had a large handful of folks over tonight, making use of the new toys:

Corn Dogs

Pommes Frites

Twinkies

The corn dogs were my homemade bratwurst (might try a more emulsified sausage next time, maybe something spicier) with a modified corn batter from the Good Eats "Man Food" episode.

The frites were just simple double-fried frites.

The twinkies were yellow cake mix + vanilla pudding mix, with a basic cream filling based on a can of marshmallow cream, baked in one of these. flavor was pretty close to the real thing, which means i can branch out and try different flavors next time.

Excuse me, I'm going to go have a coronary. After I clean my kitchen.

[legant]

The twinkies were yellow cake mix + vanilla pudding mix, with a basic cream filling based on a can of marshmallow cream, baked in one of these.

I don't know which is scarier: the fact that you made Twinkies? Or, that you have a pan in which to do it?

[JLK]

My version of comfort food: spicy skirt steak and creamy pasta with peas. I briefly marinated the skirt steak in olive oil, lime juice, garlic, a splash of hot sauce, cumin, sea salt and pepper. Seared it (about five minutes a side) and let it rest for five minutes while I finished the pasta.

The pasta, rotini, was prepared with butter (lots of it), bread crumbs, a splash of light cream, parmesan cheese and dried sage.

[Heather]

brisket cooked for several hours with unsalted V-8 juice, red wine, onions, celery, carrots, kosher salt, pepper, bay leaf, and garlic, then shredded and served over no-yolk egg noodles

green salad

dessert was a cocktail and a glass of wine at Ray's.

[MelGold]

The annual matzo lasagna feast was served up to the usual suspects (10 in total) tonight at casa oro. This year we dined on matzo ball soup, a simple mixed greens salad, lasagna (choice of meat or veggie...for those at the table really keeping kosher), and a flourless chocolate mousse cake. Dinner was accompanied by four bottles of some kind of red (a Linden Claret, some Bordeaux from Trader Joe's, and a couple of California pinot noirs)...oh and a bottle of kosher-for-Passover Coca-Cola. I love that stuff!!!

[Pat]

I'm still working on getting various odds and ends cleaned out of the refrigerator so it can be scrubbed down more easily. We started last night with tortilla chips and homemade guacamole.

The main course was a layered choucroute garnie-type dish:

sliced onions sweated in some olive oil in the bottom of a dutch oven

sauerkraut seasoned with celery seed and black pepper

hot Italian sausages and andouille sausages

sliced green peppers on the top

white wine and chicken broth poured over and brought to a simmer

Baked until the sausages were cooked to temperature.

I forgot the potatoes I was going to put in. I'll add them when I serve it as leftovers...if I remember

[Pat]

Yesterday, I made a small batch of doro wat and served it with the last of the lamb and the vegetables. I added more collards to the yegomen kitfo and we had more of that. Still a few pieces of injera left.

[zoramargolis]

Pan-seared Eco-Friendly pork loin chops with a succotash of Scarlet Runner beans, carrots, asparagus, green garlic, Marasch pepper and Meyer lemon juice and zest

Tomato and garlic-rubbed crouton

2005 Epifanio Ribera del Duero

[RaisaB]

Herb Crusted Crown Roast of Lamb

Roasted Carrots

Celery Root Mash

Assorted American Artisan Cheeses

Key Lime Pie

2000 Delectus Lodi Syrah

2004 Kilikanoon Covenant Syrah

[Pat]

No-Knead Bread and butter

Roast Lamb with White Beans

Asparagus Bundles with Proscuitto and Portobello Jack Cheese

Meyer Lemon Eclairs

[jm chen]

Broiled Fish With Sweet Soy (from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything)

Okra with tomatoes & green chilis

Brown rice

Healthy!

[mdt]

No-knead Bread

Cream of Broccoli Soup

Prime Rib Roast (meat from the Ray's Butchering class)

Baked Potatoes

Green Beans

Wheat Berries with Mushrooms and Dried Cranberries

Yorkshire Pudding

Carrot Cake

Tiramisu

2005 Domaine de la Pepiere Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine Cuvée Eden

2003 Château Béhèré Bordeaux

[Heather]

assorted olives, cheese, crackers and homemade italian sausage

endive leaves with shrimp

pig's trotters with sauce gribiche

polenta

braised pork cheeks, sauteed savoy cabbage with bacon

beet slaw with orange dressing

tossed green salad

brussels sprouts with mushrooms

crusty bread

many cheeses, including Epoisses, Borough Market stilton, & vacherin. crackers and baguettes.

sour cherry pie

walnut and chocolate pie

Easter egg cake

I don't remember all the wines consumed, but they included a lovely muscadet, a Williams Selyem 2000 Pinot Noir, Beaujolais-Villages, a bunch of Avondale rose, Reisling, Pinot Blanc, and a very nice pear cider (I had a little of this for breakfast.)

We made the cheeks, polenta, and trotters. The rest was brought and shared by our friends.

[txaggie]

cjsadler and I made dinner for his family on Saturday. The unintended theme of the meal was things you can do with white sandwich bread...

Appetizers were mini-BLTs (not pictured). The mini-BLTs were bread shells (rolled and cut-out white bread baked in mini muffin pans) with mayo, bacon, lettuce and tomato (a recipe from Jeffrey Steingarden).

The first course was a mixed green salad with candied walnuts, dried cranberries, and a goat cheese crouton.

Our main course was scallops, Corduroy-style (scallops with mashed potatoes and mushroom-wine-cream sauce).

Dessert was an apple charlotte - apples cooked in cream, sugar, and butter in a shell of white bread dipped in butter and sugar (this works out much better than it sounds) - with dulce de leche ice cream.

[JPW]

I don't remember all the wines consumed, but they included a lovely muscadet, a Williams Selyem 2000 Pinot Noir, Beaujolais-Villages, a bunch of Avondale rose, Reisling, Pinot Blanc, and a very nice pear cider (I had a little of this for breakfast.)

also...

02 Edmunds St. John "The Shadow"

A very nice 03 Corbieres - surprising how good this was from this vintage

A truly abhorrent Argentinian Shiraz

PS - Jake, the Riesling was the right match for the trotters. But having tasted them now, I'm thinking Vouvray or something else a little rounder than the Riesling. The acid in the gribiche competed with the acid in the Riesling a little too much.

[jparrott]

The acid in the gribiche competed with the acid in the Riesling a little too much.

If the gribiche was that acidic, you should've drunk cider or champagne .

[Sthitch]

Easter Egg – a custard baked in an egg shell with King Salmon belly tartar and topped with spoonbill caviar

Served with a blood orange champagne – blood orange juice, homemade blood orange vodka, and Gosset Brut Excellence

Cream of Asparagus Soup with Asparagus Tip Tempura

2002 Boillot Batard Montrachet

Poached Rockfish Fillet served with a Radish Salad and poached White Carrots

Chocolate Rabbit – A rabbit ragu with cocoa pasta topped with bacon panko crumble

1999 Leroy Volnay Santenots

Herb Marinated Colorado Lamb Loin and Pea Risotto with a Pomegranate Lamb Stock Molasses and Mint Paint

1998 Vieux Telegraphe Chateauneuf du Pape la Crau

Cheese Plate – Grana with 25 year old Balsamic, Pecorino Toscana with fig jam, and Gorgonzola in Red Wine with lavender and rosemary honey

2001 Chapoutier Banyuls Terra Vinya

[Xochitl10]

txaggie, your Easter dinner looks fantastic!

Dinner tonight was the rest of the salmon cakes, sauteed spinach with garlic and balsamic vinegar, and the last of the chocolate cake from Thursday at RTC. Which, by the way, is still pretty honking great, if a bit dry.

[Anna Blume]

Yes, Txaggie, beautifully plated, too.

(Interesting that there so many DR members with "X" in their screen names. I feel like Xander should be striding into The Other Realm at any moment to join Buffy in roasting marshmallows on the embers of the destroyed palace of Xerxes.)

* * *

Tonight's dinner was

sunchoke soup

accompanied by a thawed, warmed wedge of

cornbread

and followed by

a salad of haricots verts dressed with shallot vinaigrette

and tossed with strips of roasted red pepper and

wrinkly, black oil-cured olives

chopped with

Italian parsley.

The soup was improvised and simply prepared with a leek, half an ounce of prosciutto, basic mirepoix and this weekend's new batch of stock. After paring a few dark bits, I left the skin on the sunchokes since Elizabeth Schneider recommends its flavor and even bothered to run the soup through a fine sieve after puréeing it. Squirt of lemon juice. Swirl of light sour cream in my bowl.

Next time I make it I will be quite blasé, but this was the first time I have bothered to use sunchokes as anything other than a pseudo-water chestnut. Absolutely delicious. Know what it tastes like? CARDOONS!

[zoramargolis]

Last night:

A mezze-fest

Marinated salad of Scarlet Runner beans, feta, olives, roasted red pepper, sun-dried tomatoes and roasted garlic

Watercress

Spiced carrot puree with dukkah and baguette

Hummus

Warm ragout of fresh favas, leeks, asparagus, fennel, green garlic and Meyer lemon

Merguez beef patties

Medjool dates

2004 Naoussa (a light-bodied red from Greece)

[porcupine]

Roast chicken "Palena style"

Steamed broccoli

Sauteed collards

2005 Domaine Georges Viornery Cote de Brouilly

Cinnamon brownie

[Heather]

Asparagus soup - leftover steamed asparagus whizzed in a blender with homemade unsalted chicken stock. Seasoned with kosher salt, pepper, and a few drops of basil oil. Good, but it really needed to be put through a tamis.

Chicken breasts, sliced and sauteed in some olive oil.

Salt-free roll.

I cannot wait for this low-iodine diet to be over.

[Xochitl10]

Slow-roasted pork shoulder rubbed with paste of garlic, cumin, oil, and tangerine juice

Chipotle mashed sweet potatoes

Slaw with a rice vinegar-based dressing

[zoramargolis]

Grilled pork satay

Spicy peanut noodles

Grilled asparagus

Sliced cucumber and shredded carrots in spicy rice vinegar

Meyer lemon-almond tart

2005 Jip Jip Rocks Shiraz

[DanCole42]

Thought I'd do a "Citronelle at Home" dinner. As always, my presentation was someone lacking, but everything was blow-your-mind delicious, thank you Chef Richard.

Tomato / Carmelized Onion Focaccia from Wegman's

Tomato tartare with shallot dressing and basil oil - This was incredibly easy to make. Using the convection oven made the whole tomato-drying process run much more quickly. Rather than chop everything, I just tossed the whole lot into the food processor. Just put the mix in the fridge, stick it in a ring mold, and voila. For the record, this is the first time I've EVER plated something using a ring mold (err, circle-shaped cookie cutter).

The shallot dressing was awesome, and I definitely have an ample supply left over for the week's salads. The basil oil was just about the most beautiful shade of green I've ever seen.

Romaine on romaine salad - Forgot to take a picture of this one before it was all gone. I'm lazy, so I skipped the whole rice paper presentation and just went with a straight up salad.

Filet in Syrah Sauce with Cubed Potatoes in Porcini Sauce - With a tightened budget, I used sirloin in place of filet mignon. No complaints. The syrah sauce with deathly good - I sauteed the veggies in the fat I'd saved from some braised short ribs, and used a few cubes of the frozen braising liquid in the stock for an extra beefy kick.

For the potatoes, I used dried porcinis, which I softened in a mixture of chicken broth and white wine, which I then reduced and used in the sauce itself as "Reduced Chicken Stock."

I love porcinis (Wegman's has them fresh, but I already had a stock of dried, so no need to splurge), which for some reason remind me of the smell of my old golden retriever, Daisy. The potatoes were much easier than I thought they'd be, and I had no trouble with them falling apart. Definitely ate all the garlic cloves I used to flavor the oil. The sauce itself was a bit more creamy and thick than I'd imagined it would be, and thickly coated the potatoes. Michel Richard says to "toss the potatoes in the sauce," but the ones in the picture sure don't look tossed to me.

By this time I was completely exhausted from my improv class, the hours of prep work, and the fact that I had a nastily incapacitating cold, so I said "screw presentation" and just dumped the entire affair on a plate and topped with sauteed enoki (no will to make the tempura).

For dessert we had Michel Richard's "Le Kit Cat," which I made using Rice Crispies instead of corn flakes (better, light crunch). I wish I could claim credit for the cereal substitution, but unfortunately it's another Citronelle-inspiration. I served them up with strawberries, Breyer's Vanilla Bean ice cream (is there any other kind?), and a dusting of cocoa powder. No picture of those, either. I don't know HOW Michel makes them into perfect rectangles, but who cares? They're delicious.

Drinks were provided by our guests: Châteauneuf-du-Pape something something, and some Syrah I can't remember. This sort of specificity is why I'm such an excellent wine connoisseur.

[Xochitl10]

Roast pork and chipotle quesadillas. Mmmm.