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Dinner - The Polyphonic Food Blog


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Stopped in at the new Lotte in Germantown (they had live geoducks!) and picked up some ingredients for an Asian meal.

Edamame ravioli (won ton wrappers) with soy butter

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Salmon with black rice cake and passion fruit sauce (those Goya bags of fruit puree are a recent 'discovery' of mine. $2 for 2 cups of fruit puree. Great for desserts).

Key lime souffle cakes

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No fair! Y'all can't post about dinner and not provide more information! Details folks! Details!

Edamame ravioli (won ton wrappers) with soy butter

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What did you use to mix/bind the edamame? I'm guessing it was a puree of sorts.

Then last night we had:

chicken breasts with fennel and lavender salt

polenta

cream sauce with garlic scapes, edamame, green peas, and mint

How did you prepare the polenta? Was it moist or dry (e.g., fried or baked)? Was the cream sauce for the chicken or polenta?

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No fair! Y'all can't post about dinner and not provide more information! Details folks! Details!

What did you use to mix/bind the edamame? I'm guessing it was a puree of sorts.

The edamame filling was just pureed cooked edamame (1/2 pound) with about 1/4 pound of ricotta. Add s+p, soy, rice wine vinegar and some chili sauce (or whatever else you want). The soy-butter sauce is a Mark Bittman thing. He pronounces this a 'transcendent' (or something) fusion of East and West that he got from Jean-George Vonderichten. I think it's just ok, though. It's definitely a quick sauce. Use equal parts soy and butter... simmer the soy with a bit of grated ginger (or not) and then whisk in the butter on low heat (sorta like a soy buerre blanc).
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Fairly simple, rather traditional Japanese dinner:

Salt grilled ayu (sweetfish; it's a local river fish)

Steamed white rice

Miso soup with wakame (seaweed) and tofu

Cucumber pickles from the next door neighbor

The last of the giant bottle of Akita sake (finally!)

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Last night. More of a Fall than a summer meal, but that's what the ingredients I had seemed to be calling for.

Pan-seared Eco-Friendly pork loin chops with Marsala pan reduction sauce

Sautee'd chanterelle and maitake mushrooms

Smashed new potatoes

Red cabbage braised with red wine, honey and caraway seed

Oven roasted white onions with thyme

2002 Vinum Cabernet Franc

Leftover black raspberry-apricot tart

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How did you prepare the polenta? Was it moist or dry (e.g., fried or baked)? Was the cream sauce for the chicken or polenta?

The polenta was firm. I had sliced individual servings, separated them with waxed paper, and popped them into the freezer a couple months ago to make prep easy. Thawed a half-hour or so, laid them on a sheet pan under the broiler, drizzled with olive oil. They got some of that tasty brown crispiness on the outside without the massive oil-spitting problem I've had while trying to fry the stuff.

I plated the cream sauce between the chicken and polenta, but it was for both. I have this great new cookbook called The Improvisational Cook and the author is really big on two things: the what if, and finding the right flavor combinations. The "what if" here was -- what if I take a creamy pasta sauce and put it on polenta instead of pasta; and I had lavender salt... lavender makes me think of fennel, so I'll crush it with some fennel seed and rub that into the chicken... need a sauce... I have peas and bacon, which makes me think carbonara, so a cream sauce... peas also go well with mint and I have some fresh mint... so you just sort of build a recipe from things that have an affinity for each other. A smashing success so far.

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Cheddar Corn Chowder

Sliced flank steak with feta, greens, tomatoes and an olive and red vinegar dressing, on crusty bread

Vermicelli pasta salad with zested lemon and juice, fresh basil, evoo, heirloom tomatoes and kosher salt

White peaches with Blue Ridge Dairy yogurt and local honey

Adding to the chorus: I ;) summer.

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Magic Hat Fat Angel
Why do I think half the time you're make this stuff up? [Maybe because I still enjoy Fig Newtons and PopTarts and Grape Kool-Aid?]

No flim-flam or flummery happening here, my dear. Trader Joe's Foggy Bottom store sells MHFA for a very good price. Neither one of us much likes super hoppy, bitter beer. MHFA is just the sort of malty, caramel tinged beer that Jonathan prefers.

Last night:

Charcoal-grilled swordfish

Butter lettuce and mache salad with green goddess dressing

Cherokee purple tomato

Green beans vinaigrette

Marinated favas

Cold corn kernels with lime vinaigrette and cilantro (leftovers that had been served warm the other night)

Roasted red beets

2005 Oxford Landing Viognier

Sliced peaches with vanilla ice cream

The swordfish, purchased yesterday at BlackSalt, was super-fresh. I managed to cook it so that it was just a point, perfectly tender and juicy. This was the best piece of fish that's passed my lips this year. All-in-all, a delectable summer meal.

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A rather fusion-y dinner:

Negronis

Udon soup with cabbage, bean sprouts, and pan-seared pork bits, broth enriched with the sake-deglazed fond from the pork-searing pan

Today's farm-picked blueberries over Cointreau whipped cream -- heaven!

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First

Fried squash blossoms stuffed with homemade ricotta and reggiano

Creamy marinara*

Main

Charcoal roasted, herb-brined Eco-Friendly chicken

Marinated roasted red peppers

Green beans

Roasted cippolini onions marinated in EVO and balsamic vinegar

2006 Turkey Flat Rosé

*A basic marinara was pureed and mixed with some bechamel made with the whey from the ricotta-making. I've often felt that straight tomato sauces served with fried squash blossoms were too rustic and assertive for their delicate flavor. This sauce worked really well, savory enough to provide a flavor boost to the milky, crunchy blossoms and simultaneously creamy so that it didn't overwhelm.

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Last night:

Red beans and rice (the beans were cooked with bone-in smoked pork that I bought at Dupont market from Eco-Friendly)

Collard greens with more smoked pork

Skillet corn bread

NV Dover Canyon Renegade Red

Blueberry-wild blackberry* crisp with vanilla ice cream

*I had about 1/2 cup of wild blackberries that I foraged in Battery Kemble. Not enough to do anything with by themselves, but they gave the blueberries an extra dimension of flavor. And a bunch more seeds.

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Had onions and red/green peppers on hand so I made some chicken cacciatore which allowed me to use part of a big batch of basil marinara I made yesterday. After the peppers stop repeating on me, we'll pick a pup to come along with us into Old Town A. for a walk and some ice cream.

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Had onions and red/green peppers on hand so I made some chicken cacciatore which allowed me to use part of a big batch of basil marinara I made yesterday. After the peppers stop repeating on me, we'll pick a pup to come along with us into Old Town A. for a walk and some ice cream.

Why wait? Have the ice creamery mix some Pepcid into your scoop.

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Last night:

Broiled salmon

Boozy Japanese Potatoes (potatoes cooked with sake and soy sauce) from Eric Gower's "The Breakaway Japanese Kitchen"

Salad of bean sprouts, cucumber, wakame, green onion, and sanbai-zu (dashi, soy sauce, sugar, and rice vinegar)

Tonight:

Kirin Ichiban beer

Pork burgers with Hokkaido cheese (which has the taste and texture of Velveeta, much to my chagrin)

Broiler fries with Old Bay

Cucumber and tomato salad

All produce courtesy of friends and neighbors with gardens. I love Japan.

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Earlier this week:

Duck sausage (thanks Dan!) on lentils and oven-roasted sweet potatoes

Rocket sauteed with currants, toasted pine nuts and garlic

Store-bought bread and butter

Sliced nectarines with whipped cream

Since then: leftover lentils with whatever (leftover tandoori chicken, brocolli, etc.) If you have not tasted lentils cooked with duck fat you ought to look for an opportunity, and soon!

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Penne with tomatoes, zucchini, basil (all homegrown), ricotta (homemade), and Sorrento lemon olive oil.

Blueberry (homegrown), peach, and plum crisp with Ceylon cinnamon-maple ice cream (homemade).

You GO, girl!

Last night:

Power failure at dinner time, so we ended up taking the food to a friend's house to share, and eat in comfort.

Vegetarian enchiladas filled with sweet corn, summer squash, mild chile, onion and queso fresco

Roasted tomatillo salsa

Frijoles refritos

Magic Hat Fat Angel

Dessert--Sliced peaches and Pio Nono con Manjar Blanco (a roulade cake made partly with coconut flour, filled with a rich dulce de leche that Veggie-teen brought home from Ecuador--this was modified from a Milliken and Feniger recipe)

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This & that:

pork larb (pork from Cibola)

squash blossoms stuffed with ricotta and parm, basil, fresh tomato sauce

mini heirloom tomato salad

sauteed mixed mushrooms with fresh thyme and a smear of goat cheese on grilled bread

some rose or another

ice cream cones for dessert :angry:

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Tomato and Peach Gazpacho. A recipe from Epicurious I saved from last year and just got around to making. I think it's too sweet, since I used a white peach, but the tarragon made a really interesting back note to this. I'm going to remember that, because I grow my own tarragon.

Crab cakes. I buy the ones at the Penn Quarter farmers' market. Yes, they are expensive; but, they seem to have better and fresher crab meat than I can buy AND I don't have to go through and pick the damn meat. I used the sauce from America's Test Kitchen, using chipotle peppers and cilantro. Eh. This is just WRONG. On that note, I saw something at WF the other day that bills itself as "Better Than Tartar Sauce." Does anybody have any experience with this stuff?

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Hiyayakko (chilled) tofu. There are apparently many ways to fix it up, but ours was topped with minced ginger, green onion, and dried bonito flakes and served in a shallow dish with soy sauce.

Zaru soba: chilled soba noodles served with tsuyu (a sort of soup base) for dipping. Wasabi, minced green onion, and ginger are also put out for flavoring your tsuyu.

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The simple pleasures of making BLTs with produce from your garden. Whole wheat bread (toasted), little mayo, fresh cracked black pepper, salt, crisp lettuce, 3 pieces of bacon (Kirkland/ Costco brand) and several thick juicy slices of beefsteak tomato, picked minutes before. Three of us (inculding my 7 year old daughter) were very content!

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Cooked for four last night, tried out a bunch of new stuff. Most of the meal was only decent: salad w/cherry tomatoes, red carrots, and goat cheese, followed by roast chicken (Bouchon recipe) with corn and spinach alongside. But dessert, ah, dessert.

Homemade roasted banana ice cream in homemade crepes, drizzled with Sanders bittersweet fudge and Luxardo cherries. That's the stuff. Thanks to The Perfect Scoop, my first-ever attempt at both ice cream and crepe-making was an absolute success.

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Tomato sandwiches: rosemary rolls from Atwater, beautiful green zebra tomatoes, fleur de sel, pepper, basil leaves, fresh mozzarella, arugula dressed with olive oil and lemon. Citadelle gin & tonic.

Tomorrow: gazpacho, roast chicken with tarragon, and homemade blueberry ice cream. mmmmmm

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last night:

Fried squash blossoms stuffed with homemade ricotta, buffalo mozz, Reggiano and basil. Served with a creamy tomato and mushroom sauce.

Gratin of chard and mushrooms

2006 Domaine Sorin Rosé

Popsicles

I had a huge package of cremini mushrooms that I had gotten at Costco, and I needed to do something with them before they went bad. The ones that were still closed up nice and tight were sliced and sauteed with shallot. The ones that were a little more "gone by" and opened up were used to make mushroom jus--by Michel Richard's method, described in _Happy in the Kitchen_. I've done this a couple of times now, and the jus is a fabulous addition to pan reduction sauces in weather when it is too hot to make chicken or veal stock. And so simple. Once you are done squeezing all of the water out of the pureed, cooked 'shrooms, you are left with a block of dry, crumbly mushroom grounds. Last time, I couldn't imagine what to use them for and just threw them away. This time, I added them to a marinara sauce that I was making, which I blended together in the Vitamix with some heavy cream, and then cooked on very low heat for a while. The sauce was completely smooth--the mushroom tailings added a lot of flavor and functioned sort of as a thickening agent. The sauce was more of a brick color, with the brown mushroom puree in it, rather than the more coral orange of tomato sauce with cream. But it was delicious.

I also tried Michel Richard's microwave bechamel method, using the whey left over from the ricotta-making. So I had all this bechamel, and some chard in my fridge that had been there for over a week. And I lightly cooked the chard with some onion, and took half the sauteed mushrooms and some of the bechamel and topped it with grated Comté that I've had hanging around for a long time. My original plan was to have the squash blossoms as a first course, and grilled steak ( salmon for Veggie-teen and her friend) and the gratin as a main, but the grill was vetoed. With a baguette, everyone was satisfied.

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Caprese salad

Tortellini pasta salad with toasted pine nuts, olives, basil, and shredded romano, dressed with buttermilk ranch

Sesame chicken stir-fry with peppers, onions, snow peas, and carrots, over rice

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I had a huge package of cremini mushrooms that I had gotten at Costco, and I needed to do something with them before they went bad. The ones that were still closed up nice and tight were sliced and sauteed with shallot. The ones that were a little more "gone by" and opened up were used to make mushroom jus...Once you are done squeezing all of the water out of the pureed, cooked 'shrooms, you are left with a block of dry, crumbly mushroom grounds...I added them to a marinara sauce that I was making, which I blended together in the Vitamix with some heavy cream, and then cooked on very low heat for a while. The sauce was completely smooth--the mushroom tailings added a lot of flavor and functioned sort of as a thickening agent...delicious.
I am tempted to set up a household altar in your honor. You are ingenious when it comes to resourcefulness and bringing out every bit of flavor in what you cook.
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stewed tomatoes with sauteed bluefish (wonder where i got that idea from)

sauteed yellow squash with spring onions (deborah madison)

2002 domaine des baumard savenniers (where muscadet meets true chablis, $20 and the best white wine i've found on a supermarket shelf in a good long while)

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