meatless monday here: the simplest mushroom pasta, mycopia wild mushroom mix quick sautéed with soy and garlic and white wine to deglaze, tossed with fresh pasta, and then creme fraiche, and topped with chives. side of burrata with golden tomatoes and balsamic reduction.

annak wrote:meatless monday here: the simplest mushroom pasta, mycopia wild mushroom mix quick sautéed with soy and garlic and white wine to deglaze, tossed with fresh pasta, and then creme fraiche, and topped with chives. side of burrata with golden tomatoes and balsamic reduction.

That sounds delicious!

=R=

Thin cut pork chops are one of our staples (smaller portion is a good thing, cook quickly with a lot of salt in a very hot, well-oiled pan). Picked up an eggplant on sale at the Jewels, and I was looking for an excuse to use the fancy gochujang I got for Xmas. (I'll look up the brand later, it was recommended by CI or Milk Street a couple months ago). It's less sweet, and hotter than most of the plastic tubs I've had in the past. NYT had a recipe with garlic and fried scallions that came out delicious, and very reminiscent of similar Sichuan dishes. I'll make that again.

Edit: the brand is Jookjongyeon

I always joke with my wife that this is the easiest 12-ingredient dish I make -- mapo tofu . . .


Mise En Place & Konosuke Sumiiro SLD Gyuto, 210mm
Granulated sugar, chopped garlic, scallion greens, corn starch, Szechuan peppercorns (freshly ground), soy sauce, ground bison, 4x gelatinous pork stock (from freezer), fermented black beans/douchi, broadbean paste/doubanjiang, siken tofu (soaked in hot/salted water, then drained), scallion whites and avocado oil.

It was a recently posted youtube video by Chinese Cooking Demystified that inspired me to make this again. Once a covid-era comfort staple around here, I hadn't made it since late 2023. That said, I didn't use any of the recipe variants they laid out in the video. Instead, this is a fairly faithful take on the tried and true Fuchsia Dunlop recipe from a now-out-of-print edition of her book Land Of Plenty.

Instead of leeks, I used scallions. Instead of chicken stock, I used some pork stock I had in the freezer. Instead of ground pork, I used ground bison. In the CCD video, they make a strong case for using a leaner meat in this dish. That's a conclusion I also came to a while back, so this take fell in line with that. I've also come to agree with another point they made in the video, which is that this dish is greatly superior when freshly made (it just isn't quite as wonderful leftover), so I made a relatively small batch. In that regard, it helped that in this case, I was only cooking for two, so one container of tofu (454g) and 225g of bison was more than enough.


Mapo Tofu
So much more than the effort required to make it. This one really checks all the boxes . . . savory, spicy, umami, saucy, funky, unctuous, numbing, comforting. Served it with some jasmine rice. Still, enough leftovers for one or two servings.

=R=

This is why I love this thread so much. It reminds me of dishes I love and haven't made for a long time.

lougord99 wrote:This is why I love this thread so much. It reminds me of dishes I love and haven't made for a long time.

I agree. Always great inspiration here.

I like salad, and I love broccoli, so I decided to meld them into a single being . . .


Mise En Place, Julienne Peeler & Konosuke Sumiiro SLD Gyuto, 210mm
Evoo for saute, salt, sliced garlic, red onion, julienne'd carrot, black pepper, evoo for dressing, tupelo honey, broccoli florets (later oven-roasted), toasted pine nuts, roasted red pepper, dijon mustard, red wine vinegar, balasmic vinegar, apple cider vinegar and sliced broccoli stems (later sauteed with the onions and garlic).

There are a couple of local restaurant versions of this that I occasionally order. I have to admit that I had a strong feeling I could make a version tailored more to my specific taste (e.g. less sweet, (slightly more) cook on the broccoli). Other than the Bertolli, which I used to saute the broccoli stems, onions and garlic, the rest of the liquids and the Fallot comprised the dressing/vinaigrette. The roasted red peppers are right out of a jar, though I did cut them into pieces myself.


Roasted & Sauteed Broccoli Salad
The sum of these parts tasted really nice even before applying the vinaigrette so, very lightly dressed. Loved using all the broccoli, which I don't do often enough. There was so much here, I just couldn't discard the stems. They're really sweet compared to the florets but they do require some separate prep. Still, this one's a winner. A bit of additional work but definitely worth it.

=R=

Last time I cooked bigeye tuna conventionally (seared), it was a little tough. Lesson learned — just don’t cook it.

So I made tuna tartare. After cutting the tuna into small cubes, I added parsley and seasonings, and topped with sesame seeds. Around it I sprinkled small avocado cubes, and a little tobiko for pops of color and a slight crunch.


(Because it was high quality tuna to start with, and then was frozen, it was safe to eat.)

Last night was a classic dinner: ham loaf from scraps of double smoked Christmas ham and ground beef, mustard potatoes (a family favorite made from instant mashed potatoes), wax beans from Jerry's, salad. Grinding the outer dibs and dabs of the ham gave a lot of smokey flavor. And the wax beans were particularly nice, a vegetable bright spot for this time of year.

Breaking out a half batch of a cold weather favorite, baked rotini . . .


Mise En Place, Konosuke Sumiiro SLD Gyuto, 210mm & Global Cheese Knife
Dried Spices (oregano, thyme, cracked rosemary, basil, chile flakes), freshly grated parmigiano reggiano & pecorino romano, chopped garlic, whole milk mozzarella, evoo, red wine, hot Italian sausage, white onion, Rao's marinara sauce, chickpea rotini, black pepper, whole milk ricotta and salt.

Still not loving the Bertolli. There's nothing wrong with it but it doesn't shine quite like the other everyday evoo's in my rotation (Partanna, Lucini, Horio & Kirkland in glass). So, I'm using it up as quickly as possible to finish it off. Sausage is from Poeta's in Highwood. I don't buy much there anymore but it's the best Italian sausage I've found anywhere near home. It was encased but I busted it loose.


Baked Rotini
~35 minutes @ 375F, 4-5 minutes of fan at the end.


Plated Up
With freshly baked focaccia and some broccoli salad. I think we'll be eating that salad for a while. I made what ended up being a 'block party' quantity of it.

=R=

made this slightly gimmicky food and wine recipe tonight; enjoyable https://www.foodandwine.com/marry-me-ch ... up-8757079

(we used frozen spinach instead of fresh)

annak wrote:made this slightly gimmicky food and wine recipe tonight; enjoyable https://www.foodandwine.com/marry-me-ch ... up-8757079

(we used frozen spinach instead of fresh)

Looks really good and looking at the recipe, I'm guessing your swap-out didn't change much of anything.

=R=

Looks like today's lunch and dinner. Just effing around in the kitchen today, trying to amuse myself and get RID of some stuff. Decided on a cheese/sausage/noodle soup . . .


Mise En Place & Konosuke Sumiiro SLD Gyuto, 210mm
Pork stock (reducing a big batch today on a separate burner), ap flour, American & Cheddar cheese cubes, bowtie pasta, sauteed scallions & leeks, stray ham cubes, unsalted butter, kabanos, whole milk and grated gruyeye & cheddar.

Kind of envisioned a comforting cheesy/creamy soup with some smoky notes from the meat and a few noodles in there for texture. I probably used about 100g of noodles. It came together pretty well but I did have to add some extra stock along the way to fully hydrate the noodles. Added the milk and the cheeses at the very end, after the noodles had finished cooking.


Plated Up
Cheese, sausage & noodle soup with homebaked focaccia.

=R=

I dropped by a friend's house a few days ago and while I was there, for no particular reason, he gave me a steak . . .


Mise En Place, Chef's Press, 18-ounce & Konosuke Sumiiro SLD Gyuto, 210mm
Homemade Manale seasoning mix, Snake River Farms Gold NY Strip Steak, black pepper, unsalted butter, salt and yellow onion.

This was a really nice steak, with some insane marbling. It was individually vacuum-sealed, so it was in great condition. I just gave it a quick sear in a carbon steel skillet. While it was resting, I followed that by tossing in the onions to deglaze the pan, and take full advantage of the fond.


Plated Up
There were also some leftover side dishes but the steak and onions were so good, the other sides ended up being of little consequence.

Happy Monday!

Sauteed sliced shallots and chili crisp in butter. Added 1/4 cup half and half. Added cooked pasta. Added raw chopped spinach and 1/2 cup grated parmesan. Mixed together with pasta water to create sauce and topped with pepper and additional parmesan.

Fresh farms had ground lamb at a good price (halal too, for less than half what Jewel charges), made a dish I haven't done in ages: lamb meatball pilau, pushes all my spice buttons.

Itty-bitty meatballs (ground lamb, garlic, serrano, cilantro, bread crumbs, egg - should have had mint), brown; meanwhile cook rice pilaf style. Then cook onion, shredded carrot (my addition, in preference to raisins), more serrano, ginger, turmeric, s&p, bay leaf, red chili powder and a pinch of sugar. When the rice is ready, mix with the veg. Layer meatballs and rice, dot with butter and sprinkle slivered almonds, bake 350 for 10 minutes, serve with raita (yogurt, cuke, ginger, more serrano, pinch of salt and sugar).

What was the price of the ground lamb?

After Christmas, I checked out the boneless leg of lamb at Costco for $4.99 a pound.

Regards,
Cathy2

The lamb meatball Pilau sounds very very good!!!
I usually buy lamb both ground, legs and shoulders depending on the sale at Fresh Farms because there are no readily available sources of USA Lamb in the grocery stores near me in Wisconsin.
I breakdown the leg or shoulder into meal sided pieces, freeze and the bones make Scotch Broth soup.
Sam’s Club does sell lamb but it is grass raised in New Zealand or Australia.
It is a product more akin to venison than grain fed US lamb.
If you go to Sam’s on Tuesday in my experience that’s when they reduce prices from the weekend.
I purchase the lamb chops at a cheap discounted price, seven little chops cost me less than $7 last week and were palatable.
I also purchase the Prime Tenderloin when discounted and it has been very very good!
The only down side is they do not discount a whole Prime Tenderloin so I purchase packages with substantial fillets.
-Richard

Cathy2 wrote:What was the price of the ground lamb?

After Christmas, I checked out the boneless leg of lamb at Costco for $4.99 a pound.

Regards,
Cathy2

I think it was $4.49 or $4.29. The Costco boneless LoL is up to $5.99. $9.99 at Jewel is absurd.

we were out last night so it was meatless monday tonight instead: smitten's crusty baked cauliflower and farro. she has a combination of fresh sage, red chili flake, lemon zest, capers, and garlic that really pops the earthy cheesey dish. gotta keep warm! planning cider braised pork shoulder and polenta tomorrow.

Bachelor chow night.

Leftover egg rolls (out of sweet and sour sauce, used Bonne Maman apricot), stir fried some bok choy with garlic, ginger, black bean, dried chili, Sichuan peppercorn, sauce of chicken stock, sesame oil, black vinegar, soy, cornstarch.

annak wrote:we were out last night so it was meatless monday tonight instead: smitten's crusty baked cauliflower and farro. she has a combination of fresh sage, red chili flake, lemon zest, capers, and garlic that really pops the earthy cheesey dish. gotta keep warm! planning cider braised pork shoulder and polenta tomorrow.

I made a Smitten recipe too - the newish chicken meatball and noodle soup. Easy, tasty and warm - a good choice on a cold (and busy) night.

That cauliflower and farro recipe is on my to try list for 2025 - it's nice to hear a good review!

- zorkmead

This one is in honor of Debra Barone: lemon chicken . . .


Mise En Place & Takamura Migaki SG2 Gyuto, 210mm
Black pepper, salt, shallots & fresh rosemary, chicken thighs, white wine, evoo, dried oregano, chopped garlic and sliced lemons.

Just winging it here but this seemed like a good combination of ingredients. Was considering using cast iron but with all the acidity here, I decided on a Blu Skillet carbon steel 13" gratin instead. Drizzled some evoo into the bottom of the gratin, then made a bed with the lemon slices, shallot, garlic and rosemary sprig, and tossed that all around to coat everything. From there, placed the seasoned chicken -- skin side up -- atop the bed and put the whole thing in a 450F oven for about 30 minutes. At that point, I added some wine and let it cook for another ~15 minutes (adding convection). That gave it some additional color and also crisped the skin up surprisingly well. In the end, it came together really easily and was ready in less than an hour . . .


Lemon Chicken
Mixed up that shallot/lemon/wine sauce and spooned it over the thighs. The tender shallots and slices of lemon were delicious on their own, too. Served this with some of the never-ending, leftover broccoli salad. I'm so sick of looking at it, there was no way I was going to take a pic of it!

=R=

The lemon / shallot chicken sounds (and looks) lovely.

But I had to respond to this:

ronnie_suburban wrote:
. . . I'm so sick of looking at it, there was no way I was going to take a pic of it!

and let you know that I completely identify! I despise throwing away good food just _slightly_ more then I despise eating the same thing over and over again . . .

- zorkmead

zorkmead wrote:I despise throwing away good food just _slightly_ more then I despise eating the same thing over and over again . . .

The trick at our house is to put it way in the back of the fridge. Then once it's well past expiration, it's not throwing away good food

Anyhoo, it's been more cooking than usual lately. Tonight was Italian Wedding Soup tossed together from some pre-made frozen tiny veal meatballs, orzo, red bell pepper slivers, some antique asiago cheese, and shredded escarolle in faux veal stock made from roughly equal amounts of chicken and beef stock paste. For just home folks tonight, it's pretty close to real.

Last night was tacos (actually burritos but we're Midwesterners) with homemade flour tortillas. Chicagoland has a lot of great corn tortillas but I still think homemade flour tortillas beat all the commercial flour ones. I also roasted a couple gyros beehives to freeze and send home with the kid. He was fortunate in finding an excellent source of pitas at the River Market in Kansas City, even better than those at Baba's. And he's learned to make his own tzatziki, altho he admitted sometimes he just puts some diced cucumber and yogurt right on the sandwich.

Monday was doner kebabs made this time with a beehive of stacked sliced chicken breasts in honor of the 99¢ Jewel massive boneless breasts. Usually I use ground chicken. This was pretty good, though, but next time I'll use less marinade and agitate the chicken before stacking so the slices stick together more. First batch of homemade pitas for the week (unlike KC, I can beat the pitas I find here, at least on freshness) with the second batch yesterday destined for Ms. R's lunches.

Sunday was supposed to be a "carry-in" dinner of turkey breast, instant mashed potatoes and roasted curried carrots at MIL's assisted living. But COVID has broken out there, so we stayed home and had non-instant mp's instead. Lesson learned: The bigger the carrots, the better they roast.

Saturday was a rare occasion: a guest. Our meatball loving friend came to visit, so we had sausage/ground beef meatballs in a sort of creamy reduced milk/tomato sauce, linguini, frozen Italian beans from Kroger, and a salad based on Kroger's pre-cut romaine leaves. Ms. R stopped at Marianos for lettuce after Saturday morning Pilates and found the rest of the lettuce rather sad. The leaves turned out to be very nice and hearty if a little spendy; no need to wash and attempt to dry.

zorkmead wrote:The lemon / shallot chicken sounds (and looks) lovely.

But I had to respond to this:

ronnie_suburban wrote:
. . . I'm so sick of looking at it, there was no way I was going to take a pic of it!

and let you know that I completely identify! I despise throwing away good food just _slightly_ more then I despise eating the same thing over and over again . . .

- zorkmead

We are peas in a pod!

=R=

Using leftover spaghetti from the recent Sunday Dinner and Exchange, I added little ham and some edamame, and surrounded little spaghetti mounds with diluted lyutenica and pesto.

Not sure what you'd call it.

nr706,

How does lyutenica compare to ajvar?

Regards,
Cathy2

They're pretty close, but lyutenica contains tomato and/or carrot in addition to the red pepper and eggplant. Ajvar has red pepper and eggplant, but no tomato.

Had some friends over who happen to love spinach, so we pulled out one of our cold-weather favorites . . .


Spinach-Feta Casserole Mise En Place & Takamura Migaki SG2 Gyuto, 210mm
Black pepper, chopped garlic, Greek-style yogurt, fresh dill, wilted/squeezed spinach (started as 2 pounds, netted out at 1 pound), red wine, cremini mushrooms, Greek feta, lemon, salt, crumbled feta (lesser provenance), dried oregano, evoo and red onion.

Cooked the mushrooms down (w/red wine, garlic) sweated the onions, then mixed everything together, put it into an oval baker and baked it 350F for about an hour, covered for the first 30 minutes.

Once that was set, it was time to head outside and get the main course going . . .


One Hour In - Spare Ribs x 3 & Traeger Pellet Grill
Membranes removed, aggressively trimmed, lightly slathered with yellow mustard for binding and rubbed with an assortment of my homemade rubs. This was about 1 hour into the cook. 275F with B&B Competition Blend pellets. The 'formula' on these pellets seems to be ever-changing but this batch is labelled as pecan, cherry and post oak.

A bit later . . .


Two Hours In
Developing some nice color and bark at this point. Here, I took the opportunity to do a little maintenance. I refilled the water pan*, spritzed the ribs with a 3:1 combo of apple juice and apple cider vinegar, and stuck a temperature probe into one of the slabs. I'm not a huge fan of riding a probe during the cook but it's cold and windy and in these conditions, a probe is a more efficient method of monitoring things inside the cooker than constantly opening it (and losing temperature each time).

*The pan is unnecessary for the actual cook but I like using it because it helps greatly in the ease of clean-up, as it catches most of the drippings. And without water, the drippings would go into the pan and burn.

A bit later . . .


Four Hours In
Ready for a quick wrap, then back onto the cooker for a final crisping up of the exterior.

Here's the spinach-feta casserole as it came out of the oven . . .


Spinach-Feta Casserole

Last up, make that plate . . .


Plated Up
With some potato salad and some sweet & sour cucumber salad that I made while I was waiting out the ribs. All in all a pretty summery meal for a cold, windy day in January. Without the pellet grill, it never would have happened.

=R=

We made dinner for visitors from out of town and friends tonight on this frigid evening.

The menu was pasta Bolognese, focaccia (inspired by Ronnie's recent focaccia experiments), a salad kit and a fancy gingerbread cake with orange cardamom buttercream and chocolate ganache for dessert.

The Bolognese was excellent! But the focaccia was charred because someone forgot to set a timer:


The cake was delicious even though the ganache melted a little when I set it in the sun:


But the company was superb and all the food was eaten anyway!

- zorkmead