What's for dinner?

[Menolly]

Well...
Yesterday I just could not get it together to pull something out to defrost, or to menu plan, or anything...
...I wonder why...

Although we really don't have the funds to do so, Hyperception dropped a C-note and took the three of us out for sushi, shashimi, and pan-Asian cuisine at Chop Stix Cafe, one of my favorite places in town.

I had a couple of rolls and two tuna hand rolls: one made spicy the other not. Hyperception got the shashimi deluxe; it was far better than the two regular rolls I got for only $4 more. I'll be doing that instead in the future. But I have to have my tuna hand rolls...

I started with a small bowl of tom yum tofu and had panang steamed tofu curry with broccoli florets, sliced carrots, and sliced green peppers for my entree. Three out of four stars spiced.

It didn't really ease my focus, but I appreciated the effort, and the meal, on Hyperception's part.

So, tonight is back to the mundane.

We're having:
Thin spaghetti with doctored up jarred Bertolli sauce
A head of fresh cauliflower, trimmed and steamed
and a 1 lb. bag of frozen broccoli florets, steamed along with the cauliflower
I would add some peeled sliced carrots to the steamer, but I'm out at the moment

It...suffices.

[stonemaybe]

I had my current favourite quickie dinner tonight. The overflow of last night's boiled potatoes, made into potato salad but with a special ingredient - M&S garlic and chilli dipping oil - mixed in, 6 stuffed vine leaves (currently £1 at LIDL), and pickled gherkins.

Sound rubbish I know, but goes great together!

[Menolly]

yumm...
A meatless meal tonight then, Stone?

[Menolly]

Fiesta Bowl is tonight. I would have loved to do some Mexican.
But we're back in frugal mode.

Dug around the freezer and took out some more of the 59 cents/lb. turkey parts.
Did four drumsticks, two wings, and two thighs.

Peeled some potatoes and carrots and made a bed of those with some celery and whole garlic cloves. Rubbed the turkey with some extra-light olive oil and then made a dry rub consisting of onion soup mix, granulated garlic, hot paprika, dried dill weed, ground cinnamon, and fresh cracked pepper. Layered the seasoned parts on top of the vegetables and roasting for at least an hour.

Will make gravy from the drippings.

[stonemaybe]

yumm...
A meatless meal tonight then, Stone?

meat? Who cares about meat when there's garlic present?

[Menolly]

yumm...
A meatless meal tonight then, Stone?

meat? Who cares about meat when there's garlic present?

Oxymoron: nimium allii

Truer words...

Here in Gator Town, tonight will be turkey tetrazzini with the planned over turkey pieces and gravy from last night.

[Menolly]

What with my half century mark approaching in a little over a week or so, I was chatting on MSN with some friends regarding the passing of my parents last night. My mom passed on her 50th birthday, hence the conversation.

That sparked a longing for some childhood meals, and I decided to make a one pot meal my Daddy invented. This recipe got me in to a regional cook-off for a Manischewitz competition a few years ago. I didn't win, but it sure was fun competing!

Chicken And Grains
This is one of those measured by eye recipes. I have never taken the time to figure out the proportions. The amounts listed here are guesses, as I haven't made this in a while. It makes a lot and freezes well for a future reheated meal.

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Spray the bottom of a large broiler pan with a mister; I use extra light olive oil in mine.

Take 1 to 2 lbs of peeled carrots and slice them about 1/4" thick on the oblique (diagonal); layer them to cover the bottom of the pan.

I love garlic! I use a whole head that I crush over the layer of carrots, but you can do this to taste.

Pour uncooked long grain white rice over the carrots and garlic to cover, I think about 1 lb will do it. Do the same with uncooked pearled barley over the rice, again, I think about 1 lb will do it.

Take a 1 lb box of medium shell dry pasta (you can use any shape, but I like shells), and layer over the barley. Use your clean hand to even it out.

Pour one envelope of dry onion soup mix into a bowl and mix to disperse the seasonings evenly. Sprinkle over the layers in the pan.

Place divided leg quarters over the grains to fit in the pan. Do not press down, layer them lightly on top of the grains. In my large broiler pan, I can fit 8 leg quarters (16 pieces of chicken).

Slice up to 1/2 lb of fresh mushrooms and put the slices on top of the chicken pieces.

Pour a second envelope of dry onion soup mix into a bowl and disperse evenly. Sprinkle over the chicken pieces and mushroom slices.

Pour homemade or low sodium chicken stock around the chicken pieces until you can see the liquid about halfway up the pasta level. I think I use about a quart, but again it is by eye. Try not to pour any on to the chicken pieces, you don't want to rinse off the soup mix and mushroom pieces. I've debated adding about 1/2 cup of white wine or dry sherry to the liquid, but think it may disappear in all that broth.

Cover the broiler pan tightly with foil and bake for one hour. Remove and see if the chicken is cooked through and the pasta and grains are tender. Recover and cook an additional 15 minutes if needed.

Remove from oven and allow to stand for 10 minutes before removing foil. Put the chicken pieces on a warm platter and use a spatula to serve up the grains, including the carrots on the very bottom.

I should note that the carrots normally carmelize (we love them) and may (and probably will) stick to the pan, even with using a good non-stick spray. A good spatula will remove them for service, but the clean-up may dissuade some from making it again.

[Kaydene]

This sounds really delicious. I'm going to save it.

[Menolly]

I'm not feeling 100% today, so I'm glad I made my overnight oven pasta gravy (tomato meat sauce). I'm defrosting some Italian sausages to grill up and serve over spaghetti rigati. And I'm still enjoying making quick salads of mesclun, grape tomatoes, chevre and craisins, so that will be served on the side with extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

[stonemaybe]

Dinner tonight was a load of leftovers but it was delicious! Boiled new potatoes, covered in a stirfry of leeks, shallots, chorizo, courgette, mushrooms, garlic, chilli (fried in butter with worcestershire sauce and a bit of balsamic vinegar)

[Vader]

And I'm still enjoying making quick salads of mesclun, grape tomatoes, chevre and craisins, so that will be served on the side with extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

May I suggest to throw in a couple of tarragon leaves? The sharpness and the anisy flavor go well with grapes and goats cheese. I sometimes make a salad just with tarragon, goats cheese, grapes and slices of red onion marinated in a vinegar, salt and sugar mix.

[Menolly]

Thanks for the suggestion, Vader.
Unfortunately, I am not a fan of anise and/or licorice flavors...

[stonemaybe]

Can someone PLEASE tell me how to make a jambalaya that doesn't end up risotto? Third attempt tonight, and the nicest yet, but it was still risotto!

[Damelon]

Risotto sounds good though! Are you using the right grain of rice?


As good as risotto sounds, I don't have any broth. I'll probably just have a chicken sandwich.

[aliantha]

Made Cuban black beans and rice over the weekend. I put most of the leftovers in the freezer for lunches later on...but I left one serving out, which I had for dinner tonight. Mmmmm.

[stonemaybe]

Risotto sounds good though! Are you using the right grain of rice?


As good as risotto sounds, I don't have any broth. I'll probably just have a chicken sandwich.

Probably not. This, I did not consider. What is the 'right' rice?

[Damelon]

Long grain rice doesn't become as sticky when cooked as medium grain rice.

[stonemaybe]

Long grain rice doesn't become as sticky when cooked as medium grain rice.

Thanks Damelon. The rice I use is classed as long grain rice but it's cheap and has a disclaimer that it may be 'broken'. will try with some more expensive rice next time!

[Menolly]

Thank you all for the birthday wishes in the other thread.

The guys took me out for a celebratory dinner. We wound up going to Miraku for teppenyaki and sushi bar. The chef in the video is who we were treated to. He calls himself "Mr. Yummy" on his chef’s coat.

Hyperception and I split a sushi and sashimi platter, chef's choice. It came with three nigiri each of tuna, salmon, snapper and eel. Now, I don't like eel, but Hyperception is a fan. He ate the first piece, his eyes widened, and he said, "I don't believe I've had eel this good since I left New York." So, I went ahead and had one of the three pieces. It was good, though I still do not care enough for it to order it separately. But should we get that platter there again, I'll have one piece while Hyperception has the other two.

The sashimi was supposed to consist of 12 pieces as well. Instead it consisted of three slices each of tuna, salmon and snapper, four slices of octopus and six pieces of conch; all served on a bed of julienne daikon. I know sashimi should be eaten purely alone, but I just had to try putting a slice of gari and a few slivers of daikon on each piece. Heavenly.

That alone was a wonderful start. And well worth the $25 price for both of us, especially as it came with a bowl of miso soup.

In addition to that, I splurged on one spicy tuna hand roll, my personal favorite. And boy, am I glad I did. Beautiful cubed toro tuna strips the length of the roll, and the nori was properly crunchy. Lately all of the hand rolls I've been getting has had, while not soggy nori, nori that seems to lose its crunch due to the hand roll sitting too long between being made and brought out to the table or something. This...was perfect.

Beorn wouldn't touch the sushi or sashimi, so we allowed him to get a combo appetizer. He had gyoza, steak terriyaki skewers and bite sized fried fish of some sort.

The teppanyaki (the large habachi grill/show part of dinner) was fun and good. Each dinner came with a choice between a light onion soup or miso soup, and a salad with ginger dressing, a shrimp flambé appetizer (only three tiny shrimp, but we truly didn't mind as there was so much food anyway) and a choice of steamed white or cooked on the grill in front of you fried rice. We all chose the onion soup, since we had the miso with the sushi/sashimi.

Beorn had the combo New York strip, chicken and grouper dinner and was very happy with it all. Hyperception had the New York strip, tuna and scallops. I had intended to get the combo New York Steak, calamari and shrimp, but the free entreé on ones birthday was restricted to the single ingredient meals. This was actually fine with me, as there was the small shrimp appetizer, and Hyperception was willing to give me a taste of each of his items, so I had a bite of steak, tuna, and scallops, along with my calamari. We were both very happy as well.

I had a pot of hot tea, which was kept hot by being set on the hot grill and the guys both stuck with water. A very fun, pleasant meal in a nice setting overall.

We had planned on going to the Ben and Jerry's scoop shop next door for a celebratory ice cream after, but we were all totally topped off. We put that off until after dinner tonight. Kind of nice actually, extending the celebration.

[aliantha]

Did they do the onion-slice volcano? I *love* the onion-slice volcano....