lougord99 wrote:Slice everything up and serve.
ronnie_suburban wrote:Smoked chicken (leg quarter and a portion of breast), leftover/reheated potato kugel & lentils, mache/arugula salad with homemade buttermilk/chive/shallot dressing.
G Wiv wrote:ronnie_suburban wrote:Smoked chicken (leg quarter and a portion of breast), leftover/reheated potato kugel & lentils, mache/arugula salad with homemade buttermilk/chive/shallot dressing.
Chicken looks great! But, please stop torturing us with the kugel.
I'm going to have to bust out "Granny's" kugel recipe for next week. (see what you have driven me to)
lougord99 wrote:A dish that is in our regular rotation, stir fried chicken inspired by Ming Tsai . . .
nr706 wrote:Last night was a sushi night, but I sometimes get tired of the usual nigiri and maki. (And, sorry, I forgot to take photos at many of the steps.) I hope my descriptions of what I made aren’t too basic for true sushi aficionados.
Rice was cooked, then went into the hangiri for seasoning.
First version was pressed sushi — oshizushi. Lining the bottom of the oshizushihako (oshizushi mold) with salmon.
It gets turned upside down after cutting down the slots in the mold, so the salmon will be on top. After the layer of salmon is finished, a little rice is added, then another layer of something, then more rice. In this case, the middle layer was egg, cooked with a little potato starch and cut into thin slices. Another version was made with shrimp on top and gari in the middle.
For the other style, I made temari sushi — named after decorative Japanese toy balls. Again, no pix of the making, but a pattern of green onion or other stuff went down on a piece of plastic wrap, then the protein (again, salmon or spinach), topped with a round, large-marble-or-small-golf-ball-sized serving of rice, then rolled up into a sphere by gathering up the plastic and twisting.
Both styles are known for decorative toppings. I used various toppings: slivers of egg, red tobiku, domestic caviar, basil flowers, mustard flower, turnip greens, green onion, and edible gold flakes — one or two (rarely three) for each piece. Arranged for dinner:
I’m not sure my Japanese ancestors would approve of my ingredients or technique. Luckily, I don’t have any Japanese ancestors.
nr706 wrote:I’m not sure my Japanese ancestors would approve of my ingredients or technique. Luckily, I don’t have any Japanese ancestors.
My bad — I mis-spelled it, it's tobiko, or flying fish roe. It comes dyed in a number of colors. And the "domestic caviar, " — I just double checked — is actually a lumpfish roe caviar from Iceland. So, two mistakes. Sorry.lougord99 wrote:What is difference between domestic caviar and red Tobiku which I have never heard of, but google tells me is caviar.
From the grow lights in the basement. I probably started on seeds for the garden a bit early; some of the plants started to blossom.lougord99 wrote:Mustard flowers, basil flowers - Matsuwa market ?
A remnant of the brief, unlamented fad for glitter beers of a few years ago. It's originally from Amazon, and usually used for cake decorating.lougord99 wrote:Edible gold flakes : I know what those are - where do you get them ?
As Joel F noted, gari is is also a term for pickled ginger. Just about any well-stocked grocery should have it.lougord99 wrote:Gari - Google tells me that is processed cassava. Where did you get this ?
Thanks. There are plenty of YouTube videos on both Oshizushi and Temari Sushi.lougord99 wrote:Everything looks amazing - I just don't understand how to duplicate - can you help ?
tjr wrote:Last night was pizza night.
A mise en place pic to chuckle at compared with Ron's exquisite ingredients and superb cutlery: Toppings for 3 individual pizzas - pepperoni, artichoke/tomato/black olive, double (or triple?) mushroom/pepper, along with my trusty red Mundial parer and homemade pizza pin. Altho I have tons of other knives, including better Victorinox paring knives (and a "For Men Only" ham slicer and one of those county fair cuts-through-a-beer can knife/saw things), this red one and its green twin are the ones I grab most often. Even though I know that the correct way to chop is using a chef's knife or Chinese cleaver, I've never been able to shake the habit I learned from my mom of chopping small things with a paring knife.
Two shots of the pizzas. The pepperoni one went fast.
Tonight was pork loin. The last three Sundays have featured pork: Pork chops, ham, loin.
Grilled on the Akorn kamado over indirect heat from Carbon San Miguel mesquite lump charcoal and a small oak log. It got done far quicker than I anticipated. This is just before it got wrapped in foil and set on the damped-down grill to coast until the taters were done.
JoelF wrote:very cheap pub burgers at $1.50 for the 8-oz-ish ones (I asked them to be weighed, as last time a pair came out to 14oz, this time, 1.16 lbs).
ronnie_suburban wrote:albumin on top does probably indicate that it cooked a little too fast/hot.
tjr wrote:...A mise en place pic to chuckle at compared with Ron's exquisite ingredients and superb cutlery: ... Altho I have tons of other knives, including better Victorinox paring knives (and a "For Men Only" ham slicer and one of those county fair cuts-through-a-beer can knife/saw things), this red one and its green twin are the ones I grab most often. Even though I know that the correct way to chop is using a chef's knife or Chinese cleaver, I've never been able to shake the habit I learned from my mom of chopping small things with a paring knife.
...
thetrob wrote:tjr wrote:...A mise en place pic to chuckle at compared with Ron's exquisite ingredients and superb cutlery: ... Altho I have tons of other knives, including better Victorinox paring knives (and a "For Men Only" ham slicer and one of those county fair cuts-through-a-beer can knife/saw things), this red one and its green twin are the ones I grab most often. Even though I know that the correct way to chop is using a chef's knife or Chinese cleaver, I've never been able to shake the habit I learned from my mom of chopping small things with a paring knife.
...
Use whatever is comfortable, there is no one "correct" knife to use. I watch Jacques Pepin's channel on Youtube / Facebook. He uses different knifes all the time, sometimes its a chefs knife, sometimes its a petty or utility knife, sometimes a pairing knife, etc., some cheap, some expensive. One clip showed he had around 50 different knives around, and he made a comment about how he just loves to collect and use them. Even in his mid 80's, it is still a pleasure to watch the ease at which he cuts, chops and uses his knives.
ronnie_suburban wrote:Went with the Napoleon charcoal grill again tonight. Can't say I'm enjoying using it very much but I cannot entirely dismiss it after only a few dozen cooks.
tjr wrote:ronnie_suburban wrote:Went with the Napoleon charcoal grill again tonight. Can't say I'm enjoying using it very much but I cannot entirely dismiss it after only a few dozen cooks.
Pardon me if I missed it the first time, but this is a Napoleon kettle grill? I saw one pic in April with a cast iron grate with a logo and another that looked like a Weber grate. What are the advantages of the Napoleon? Drawbacks?
Not from an Akorn kamado, is it?ronnie_suburban wrote:I use a cast iron grate lifter from another cooker I own
tjr wrote:Thanks for the info about the Napoleon, Ron.Not from an Akorn kamado, is it?ronnie_suburban wrote:I use a cast iron grate lifter from another cooker I own