Promised myself I'd try to make more fish/seafood this year and so far, I'm sticking to it, this time with a batch of misoyaki sable fish . . .


Mise En Place & Takayuki VG-10 Hammered Damascus Petty, 80mm
Mirin, sake, sable fish, shiro miso and sugar.

Made a marinade from the 4 ingredients in the back row and marinated the fish in it for about 24 hours in a zip-top bag. I didn't think I'd need a knife for this at all but the fish had quite a few firmly ensconced pin bones that, even with some good fish tweezers, I could not remove. So, I cut a couple of the wider pieces in half lengthwise, removing the small strips of flesh that contained all the bones. Still new, the Takayuki sliced through the fish, including the skin, like a razor. Once removed from the marinade, I broiled the fish for about 12 minutes (475F convection broil) until it browned lightly.

Also wanted to include a fresh side dish . . .


Cabbage Mise En Place & Sukenari HAP40 Gyuto, 210mm
Avocado oil, sansho peppercorns (later ground into powder), green cabbage, shirodashi, shoyu, sake, red onion and microplaned ginger.

Just stir-fried this to create a bed for the fish, then served it up . . .


Plated Up
With some leftover/reheated jasmine rice.

=R=

I had a 2# bag of dried whole peas that one friend gave me.
I had a ham bone that my host gave me at the conclusion of Christmas dinner.
And I got a bag of free sweet onions which was erroneously included in their Walmart delivery order.

So, tonight was pea soup night.

My general recipe for split pea soup in ham bone, peas, carrots, water and spices.
This time, I "followed" a different recipe which added onions and potatoes. I am not sure what role they really played as I did not notice them in the final product.

ronnie_suburban wrote:Promised myself I'd try to make more fish/seafood this year and so far, I'm sticking to it, this time with a batch of misoyaki sable fish . . .


Mise En Place & Takayuki VG-10 Hammered Damascus Petty, 80mm
Mirin, sake, sable fish, shiro miso and sugar.

Made a marinade from the 4 ingredients in the back row and marinated the fish in it for about 24 hours in a zip-top bag. I didn't think I'd need a knife for this at all but the fish had quite a few firmly ensconced pin bones that, even with some good fish tweezers, I could not remove. So, I cut a couple of the wider pieces in half lengthwise, removing the small strips of flesh that contained all the bones. Still new, the Takayuki sliced through the fish, including the skin, like a razor. Once removed from the marinade, I broiled the fish for about 12 minutes (475F convection broil) until it browned lightly.

Also wanted to include a fresh side dish . . .


Cabbage Mise En Place & Sukenari HAP40 Gyuto, 210mm
Avocado oil, sansho peppercorns (later ground into powder), green cabbage, shirodashi, shoyu, sake, red onion and microplaned ginger.

Just stir-fried this to create a bed for the fish, then served it up . . .


Plated Up
With some leftover/reheated jasmine rice.

=R=

Sablefish bones are super easy to remove post-cooking—they end up sticking straight out. If it’s SSS fish, they stopped removing the bones prior to packaging because it resulted in a lot of waste and that ran counter to the sustainability commitment.

Had my Sister in law over for her birthday. Home made pasta rolled out with a 40 year old pasta roller and slow cooked bolognese sauce.

ronnie_suburban wrote:sansho peppercorns (later ground into powder)

From the discussion the other day, did you grind these in your new Secura grinder? Or in the not-so-great Krups?

boudreaulicious wrote:Sablefish bones are super easy to remove post-cooking—they end up sticking straight out. If it’s SSS fish, they stopped removing the bones prior to packaging because it resulted in a lot of waste and that ran counter to the sustainability commitment.

Yeah, the bones came right out of the pieces where I overlooked them before cooking. This wasn't from Sitka (WF) but I imagine that the level of processing is about the same across the board with more reputable suppliers. Not a big deal but I was surprised by how difficult they were to remove from the raw fish. And while I didn't weigh it before and after, I can't imagine that I lost more than 1% of the fish by removing the bone strip. That's a totally acceptable loss imo.

lougord99 wrote:Had my Sister in law over for her birthday. Home made pasta rolled out with a 40 year old pasta roller and slow cooked bolognese sauce.

Wow, that looks great, Lou!

tjr wrote:

ronnie_suburban wrote:sansho peppercorns (later ground into powder)

From the discussion the other day, did you grind these in your new Secura grinder? Or in the not-so-great Krups?

The Secura but honestly, I'm concerned that isn't as effective as the Krups. The Secura blade seems to rotate much slower, resulting in a much coarser grind. But this is only after a single use. More uses are needed before I can make a meaningful assessment. Either way, not having parts of the grinder compartment in the food is a big improvement.

From Japanese-inspired last night to Sichuan tonight, and a significant increase in the number of ingredients, going from 5 to 13 . . .


Mapo Tofu Mise En Place & Sukenari HAP40 Gyuto, 210mm
Soy sauce, 4x gelatinous barnyard stock, fermented black beans, leeks, coarsely ground pork scallion tops, doubanjiang, soft tofu, minced garlic, toasted/ground Sichuan peppercorns, avocado oil, corn starch (for slurry) and granulated sugar.

From here, basically just a stir-fry, with the components going into the wok in a set order. Last 2 bits in are the tofu and the corn starch slurry. I've gotten pretty adept at not breaking up the soft tofu too much while giving it all a final toss or two . . .


Plated Up
With some more of that leftover/reheated jasmine rice and a fresh batch of spicy-sweet cucumber salad.

=R=

Driven by a craving for soft whole wheat without huge ambition, tonight I made whole wheat flatbreads with hamburger patties topped with Swiss cheese, mushrooms, grilled green peppers, chopped dill pickles, sauteed tomatoes and wilted romaine. Dough made in the Secura breadmaker and grilled in the same big skillet that cooked everything else.

A dead-of-winter, one-pot stew tonight . . .


Rancho Gordo Mayocoba Beans
Wasn't sure how old these were, so I gave them an overnight soak.


Mise En Place & Nakagawa Hamono Ginsan Gyuto, 240mm
Evoo, bay leaves & parsley fronds, 4x gelatinous pork stock, celery, hakurei turnip, tomato paste, carrot, slitted red jalapenos, mini tomatoes, salt, seared cevap pieces, black pepper, overnight-soaked mayocoba beans, red wine, red & yellow onion and coarsely chopped garlic.

Because I was unsure of the beans' age, I held off on adding the tomatoes and the wine until I was sure the beans were well on their way. Other than that, this was a very straightforward, conventional prep. Cooked the mirepoix+ in the renderings of the evoo-seared cevap pieces, which released the fond. From there, I removed the seared cevap pieces until the very end and went at it like any standard pot of beans. In the end, I don't think the beans were very old because they were tender in less than two hours. After that, I just let it simmer and reduce until about 30 minutes before we ate, when I added back the cevap . . .


Plated Up
With some spectacular toasted/buttered caramelized onion boule from Loaf Lounge in Avondale. In fact, as tasty as this stew was, the bread may have been the highlight.

=R=

Gyoza and dipping sauce

lougord99 wrote:
Gyoza and dipping sauce

Those look fantastic and yummy. Where is the drooling emoticon when you need it?

Xexo wrote:Where is the drooling emoticon when you need it?

Yeah, it's too bad this platform doesn't have upvotes or likes!

I took advantage of the Asian vegetable sale at Jewel for last night's dinner. Produce quality was quite good, but wish they had bulk mung bean sprouts too. An all-Jewel dinner except for some oyster sauce. Sliced and marinated one of those giant 1+lb boneless breasts frozen from the 99¢ sale, stir fried it and set aside half to freeze for another iteration. Cut up some gai lan, green pepper, daikon and Shanghai choy, stir fried those, added oyster and soy sauces and the chicken, put half the dish over rice for me, then added some cooked angel hair and a little water and fried just a little more for Ms. R who loves rice less than I.

Was back at the grill tonight. It had been a while but it's been mild and weather really hasn't been a factor. I guess I've just gravitated lately to more indoor-cooked dishes. In any case, it had been a little over a month since we'd had pork shoulder chops and there seemed to be a collective hankering . . .


Charcoal-Grilled Pork Shoulder Chops


Plated Up
With Persian cucumber salad, leftover/reheated spinach-feta casserole and some more of the exceptional toasted/buttered caramelized onion boule from Loaf Lounge.

Happy Monday!

=R=

Baked ziti with eggplant and spinach.

Not the best planning on my part to have burger night during the first significant snowfall in weeks but the snow tapered off in the late afternoon, which made it a bit easier. And with temps in the mid-30'sF, it wasn't too unpleasant a session out by the grill . . .


Revving Up The Weber

Before that, though, some minor prep . . .


Burger Fixins & Masakage Koishi Gyuto, 240mm
Homemade, fermented garlic-dill pickles, caramelized onions and iceberg lettuce. It's on days like these when I'm really glad I took the time to put up some pickles back during the summer.


Charcoal-Grilled Cheeseburgers


Plated Up
With a blob of the weekly slaw, some mini tomatoes and a few Route 11 potato chips.

=R=

String roast with horseradish cream, brown rice, roast carrot/mushroom/garlic and a tasty roast kabocha squash.

click to enlarge



Kabocha, count me a Fan!

Looks delish, but what's string roast?

And are those carrot bunny ears in your brown rice hedgehog? Maybe rice would be a bigger seller here if I upped my presentation game like yours!

G Wiv wrote:String roast with horseradish cream, brown rice, roast carrot/mushroom/garlic and a tasty roast kabocha squash.

Looks great, Gary and I love the carrot antennas in the rice!

=R=

tjr wrote:Looks delish, but what's string roast?

Sirloin Tip Roast, tied with strings. My childhood bride, as opposed to child bride, called this beefy, flavorful relatively inexpensive cut "string roast' as a kid. Big family, they all fought over the strings which absorb juice and flavor.

Ronnie, tjr, carrot antennas were a last minute inspiration. I am thinking of calling it the "Uncle Martin"

G Wiv wrote:Ronnie, tjr, carrot antennas were a last minute inspiration. I am thinking of calling it the "Uncle Martin"

LOL, awesome! I was actually thinking the exact same thing (well, the Ray Walston, anyway).

Was/am set on leftovers tonight but when the forager gets in touch, I do my very best to never say no. So, I wound up with some king trumpets and I didn't want to let them sit any longer . . .


Mise En Place & Mystery (Tojiro?) VG10 Petty, 145mm
Unsalted butter, black pepper, salt, king trumpets, dry vermouth and shallots.


Plated Up
These made for a really nice late afternoon snack. I still have just less than half of my delivery left, which I plan to cook tomorrow.

=R=

G Wiv wrote:string roast

Thanks. I noticed sirloin tip in an ad the other day, hadn't seen it in a while at least in the ads I usually follow. Yours looks mighty fine.

Tonight was cheddar quiche:I couldn't quite justify 1+ sticks of butter in a dish for 2 people, so I made a reduced fat pastry that wasn't particularly flaky but seemed to suit the purpose. As a bonus it didn't over brown even though the top of the quiche got pretty done. Next time I'll turn the top heat down - I use a little Nuwave Bravo oven that allows setting top and bottom heat from 0 to 100% when baking. Hard to believe this took $1 worth of eggs!

tjr wrote:

G Wiv wrote:string roast

Thanks. I noticed sirloin tip in an ad the other day, hadn't seen it in a while at least in the ads I usually follow. Yours looks mighty fine.

Tonight was cheddar quiche:I couldn't quite justify 1+ sticks of butter in a dish for 2 people, so I made a reduced fat pastry that wasn't particularly flaky but seemed to suit the purpose. As a bonus it didn't over brown even though the top of the quiche got pretty done. Next time I'll turn the top heat down - I use a little Nuwave Bravo oven that allows setting top and bottom heat from 0 to 100% when baking. Hard to believe this took $1 worth of eggs!

One egg?

Evil Ronnie wrote:One egg?

Hah! Three, from a $3.99 dozen from Woodmans. Almost as much as the cheese. That was 6 oz from a $5.99 two pound block of Lucerne (Jewel) cheddar that sat in the cheese fridge for a year or so.

G Wiv wrote:Sirloin Tip Roast, tied with strings. My childhood bride, as opposed to child bride, called this beefy, flavorful relatively inexpensive cut "string roast' as a kid. Big family, they all fought over the strings which absorb juice and flavor.

OMG. I totally forgot about fighting over the strings from the roast. They were the best part.

LTH,
Sorry for high jacking the thread…
Chicken picatta (with last night’s ziti.)

Today, lamb chops, okra and brown basmati rice. Started out prepping the okra, as it can take a while soften up . . .


Mise En Place & Masakage Koishi Gyuto, 240mm
Ro-tel, coarsely chopped garlic, minced shallots, ghee, okra, red onion, red jalapeno, mini tomatoes, cumin seed and spice plate (garam masala, amchur, asofoetida, ground cumin, turmeric, Kashmiri chili powder, dried fenugreek leaves and salt).

Bloomed the cumin seed and spices in ghee, then sweated the aromatics. After that, in went the okra, followed by the tomatoes, the ro-tel and a couple cups of water. From there, I simmered it covered for a couple of hours, until the okra had completely softened. Then uncovered it and reduced it to finish. While that was going, I seasoned and pan-seared the lamb chops. Once done and while they rested, I tossed the remaining king trumpet mushrooms (from yesterday) and some red onions into the pan and sauteed them in the renderings.


Pan-Seared Lamb Chops, Sauteed King Trumpet Mushrooms & Onions


Plated Up
With stewed okra and brown basmati rice.

=R=

LTH,
Roast turkey breast, turkey jus, Parmesan potatoes, steamed spinach

Andouille

If you are making sausage and you think your pork does not have enough fat, Fresh Farms Wheeling sells pork fat.

lougord99 wrote:Andouille

Love it, Lou!

=R=

Before making the main component of our dinner, it was time for another edition of the weekly slaw . . .


Green Cabbage, Carrot & Toyama B#2 Damascus Gyuto, 210mm

Next up, tonight's dinner prep. Went with a mostly-faithful rendition of Lidia Bastianich's meatballs . . .


Mise En Place & Toyama B#2 Damascus Gyuto, 210mm
Panko, eggs, s&p, grated parmigiano reggiano & pecorino romano, flat leaf parsley, microplaned garlic, whole milk and ground beef & pork.

The only variations I make to Lidia's recipe are to use a 50/50 mix of the 2 cheeses instead of just parm. And because I use panko, I make a panade and add the milk, which Lidia's recipe doesn't call for. I've found that without the milk, the meatballs can be a little tough and dry. Once mixed, I gently formed them into 35 ~90g balls. From there, to save time and mess, I convection roasted the balls rather than frying them. About 25 minutes at 400F and they were ready. From there honestly, I could eat them just as they came out of the oven but instead, we went 'deluxe,' busted out a jar of Rao's marinara sauce and cooked up some spaghetti . . .


Plated Up
With some spicy-sweet cucumber salad and a blob of the weekly slaw.

=R=

Cold day, decided I wanted to braise, so I stopped at Fresh Farms Wheeling for chuck roast, carrots, and an orange (thought I had parsley, oh well, a sprig of cilantro and celery tops went in the bouquet garnish). French daube provençal. Ended up delightfully unctuous if a little dehydrated (halving recipes is fraught with peril).

I don't know if I'll ever know why I live things like this but hated my mother's pot roast, but it probably had to do with not understanding low and slow.

Dessert was freshly made multigrain bread, recipe from The Breadmaker's Apprentice.