Dinner prep started with some annoying but necessary grill maintenance . . .


Fender Washers
Owing largely to regular use and increasingly cheaper construction, my kettle is continuing to burn-in in spots. I could see daylight poking through in yet another spot, so I had to plug it up today. That's now 4 fender washers in use. Soon, I'll have to replace the bowl, which I've done 2 other times in the 25+ years I've owned it.

The goal today was to really get RID of some stuff that was occupying prime real estate in the back of the fridge. That's how we ended up having sausage at breakfast and at dinner. Apparently, sometime early during the lockdown, I panic stockpiled. After I discovered several packs of cryovacked sausage in the fridge this morning, I decided that today was the day to unwind. But before that, came side dish prep. . . .


Stir-Fry Mise En Place & Sakoda AS Gyuto, 210mm
Sakoda-shortened long beans, lobster stock (gifted to me by Jazzfood), extra firm tofu, oyster sauce, soy sauce, minced garlic, veg oil and maitake mushrooms.

It was great to have the rich lobster stock, which really elevated this dish. Jazzfood dropped off 3 pints, so, I have a couple left in reserve. Also, had to get rid of one small slab of tofu that was leftover from Friday night's curry. Mission accomplished!


Stir-Fried Maitakes & Long Beans
Because of Alan's rich lobster stock, the leftovers will make for some nice lunches on their own this week.

In addition to the cache of sausages I found, there were also a few boneless skinless chicken thighs to use up. Even though I generally try to avoid grilling them, this time around I figured why not toss them on the grill and get them cooked . . .


Grilling
All snuggled together on the indirect side of the grill (where they cooked covered).


On The Platter
Boneless skinless chicken thighs, Bende Hot Smoked Sausage (left), Framani Salt & Pepper sausage (top, middle) and Jalapeno-Cheddar sausage (right).


Plated Up
With homemade green 'sambal.'

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Carne Asada tacos. Rice, refried beans from scratch. Served Taqueria style.

Horrible picture does not represent taste.

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Tacos, count me a Fan!

G Wiv wrote:Tacos, count me a Fan!

What's not to love?

Quick Monday night, after-work/before more work dinner prep . . .


Cabbage Mise En Place & Kohetsu Blue #2 Addict, 240mm
Apple cider vinegar, rendered bacon fat (reclaimed after Sunday BLTs), caraway seeds, finely minced garlic, red onion and shredded napa and arrowhead cabbages.

It felt very good to just go at the cabbages with The Addict. Knife therapy!


Tomato Salad
Approaching the end of our homegrowns. These are Rally, Green Zebra and maybe a Better Boy. Dressed with evoo, balsamic, chives, basil leaves, salt and black pepper.


Charcoal-Grilled Pork Tenderloin
All three were trimmed, trussed, oiled and dry-rubbed. While they were grilling, I decided to baste one with some leftover Korean-style glaze from some eggplant I made last week.


Plated Up
Tenderloin over braised cabbage with tomato salad. Dinner done. Now, back to a bit more work.

Happy Monday!

=R=

Not the greatest but decent prime NY strips from Costco . . .


Grilling
Because they tend to be not overly flavorful or well marbled, I usually go a bit heavier on the seasoning when I cook steaks from Costco. These were lightly oiled and generously dusted with salt, black pepper and some homemade rub.


Plated Up
With steamed broccoli (garlic butter, red chile flakes) and some of the weekly (okay, occasional) beans, which are Domingo Rojos from Rancho Gordo. They're distinctive because they're fairly dense, with very creamy interiors and firm skins. They produced a light pot liquor. And even after cooking, they maintained a very deep, red color. Perhaps that's how they got their name.

=R=

BLT with homegrown tomatoes = dinner.

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BLT, count me a Fan!

Another weekly slaw taking form . . .


Conehead Cabbage, Carrot & Masakage Yuki White #2 Gyuto, 210mm
Hadn't used the Yuki in quite some time. It's such a beautiful and elegant cutter.

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PM session. A very simple but delicious dinner. Yes, grilled chicken thighs!


Mise En Place & Masakage Yuki White #2 Gyuto, 210mm
Zucchini, minced garlic, salt, black pepper and evoo.


Sauteed Zucchini
This is Prep #1 around here and as much as I like to vary things, it's still the gold standard for us. It really shows off the zucchini.


Grilling
Chicken thighs with Manale's spice rub. These only took about 24 minutes, covered, on the indirect side.


On The Platter
Still trying to figure out the best photographic setting combinations for low light situations with a big white background.


Plated Up
Charcoal-grilled chicken thigh, sauteed zucchini and leftover broccoli & onions. As much as I love broccoli, this was this batch's third appearance, so I'm very glad to see it go!

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Brisling sardines and guac = delicious.

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Brisling sardines and guac, count me a Fan!

G Wiv wrote:Brisling sardines and guac, count me a Fan!

That's a beautiful can of deens you have there!

Monday night stir fry helped us get RID of a couple of decent NY strips from Costco that were running out of time. It ended up being a very nice save . . .


Mise En Place & Tanaka Blue #2 Nashiji Gyuto, 210mm
Yellow & red onions, grated ginger, minced garlic, corn starch (for slurry), marinated beef (salt, baking soda, corn starch, Shaoxing cooking wine, soy sauce, dark soy sauce and veg oil), sauce (soy sauce, oyster sauce, black pepper sauce (Lee Kum Kee), corn starch, 4x gelatinous pork stock + water), green>orange & yellow bell peppers and veg oil.

Decided to go bigger on the veg pieces than I normally do so that I could cook them to the desired softness and still maintain some piece identity. That worked really out well. Swapped out black bean and garlic sauce for the black pepper sauce and I liked it more that way. Less sweet.


Plated Up
Stir-fried beef with bell pepper, black pepper and onion. Served with reheated jasmine rice.

Happy Monday!

=R=

Best intentions and all that jazz.

Wanted to make a relatively health conscious dinner, cauliflower, pounded chicken cutlets with mushroom pan sauce and rice. Not sure what the hell happened but we ended up with cheese sauce laden cauliflower and a thick cream sauce mushroom gravy for the pounded lightly dredged chicken thigh cutlets.

It was delicious, if I do say so myself, but about 4400 calories per bite.

New day, new beginnings, new resolutions. Maybe I'll make a light tofu stir fry and end up with gooey sweet and sour pork.

Best intentions and all that jazz.

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Cauliflower, count me a Fan!

G Wiv wrote:It was delicious, if I do say so myself, but about 4400 calories per bite.

Well, it looks delicious! Nice job, even if you didn't mean to do it.

=R=

Followed up a lunchtime bowl of ramen at Santouka with some more soup . . .


Mise En Place & Konosuke Togatta GS+ Gyuto 240mm
Onions, minced garlic, celery ribs & leaves, parsley leaves (from our garden), carrot, black pepper, salt, 4x gelatinous pork stock, hot Italian sausage, evoo and kale.

Inspiration for this was some absolutely beautiful redbore curly kale we got from Three Sisters Garden. From there, just figured a sausage and kale soup was a sound move. Started by searing the sausage pieces in a splash of evoo, then removing them. Next, sweated the mirepoix in the renderings until they started to soften. Next, I added some of the garlic, all the kale, a couple big blobs of the stock and some water (and some bay leaves not pictured above). Simmered/reduced it all for about hour, after which I added the remainder of the garlic, some of the parsley leaves and the par-cooked sausage. After that, I let it simmer for another 10 minutes and ladled it out.


Plated Up
With buttered harvest grain toast.

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SueF was out (retired) but they pulled her back in tonight... so it's Bachelor Chow.
From the freezer: some homemade stock ice cubes, and a fish filet that's been there probably longer than my granddaughter has been alive.
From the garden: a couple jalapenos, a small bell, and some brussels sprout leaves (they're somewhere between cabbage and collards).
From the fridge and counter: ginger, garlic and scallions.
From the pantry, facing heaven chiles, green Sichuan peppercorns, fermented black beans, black vinegar, rice wine, sugar, sesame oil, cornstarch, Momofuku tamari, rice stick noodles.

Marinated the fish in tamari and rice wine - after thawing, there wasn't much fish, but I'm committed.
Separate piles for oil-flavoring, aromatics, veg, garnish (the scallions).
Sauce of stock, tamari, sugar, vinegar, cornstarch, water to make a cup.

Boil water for noodles, drain.
Heat oil, scorch the chiles and peppercorns, scoop into bowl where fish is marinating.
Add the aromatics, stir fry a bit, add the veg, stir fry until the leaves look cooked, add the fish, noodles and sauce, simmer, stirring a couple times. Serve, garnished with scallion.

Couple of cooking projects while working from home today. First up, made a "lunch" out of the trimmings from Sunday's ribs . . .


Mise En Place & Makoto AS Ryusei Gyuto, 210mm
Minced garlic & bay leaf, slitted cherry bomb peppers, quartered tomatillos, seared rib scraps (veg oil, then seasoned in salt, pepper, granulated garlic & onion, fresh ground cumin, ancho chile powder and Mexican oregano), salt and black pepper.

After the sear, tossed the veg into the pan to release the fond, added a touch of water and braised it covered for a couple of hours until the pork was tender, then reduced the liquid. The tomatillos contain a lot of pectin, which helped make the sauce nice and thick.


Braised Rib Scraps
Had to get a shot, even though this ended up not actually being lunch because it took too long to finish. I had a yogurt instead. Unfortunately, the scraps weren't quite enough food for dinner but at least they're cooked, not wasted, and ready to be reheated for another meal, maybe even a lunch!

Next up, dinner, YASF (yet another stir-fry) . . .


Mise En Place & Makoto AS Ryusei Gyuto, 210mm
Okay, deep breath . . . green beans, king oyster mushrooms, shallots, fermented black beans, grated ginger, minced garlic, purple cauliflower, reconstituted black fungus, salt, black pepper, u-26 shrimp, white pepper, oyster sauce, veg oil, chile black bean sauce, soy sauce, toasted sesame oil and Shoaxing wine. Got RID of a lot of stuff here and ended up with a nice combination.


Shrimp & Veggie Stir-Fry
Just sticky/saucy enough. I liked this but Mrs. Suburban loved it, which made me like it just a bit more.


Plated Up
With some freshly rice cooker'd jasmine rice.

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Leftovers tonight but a quick turn-around the weekly slaw . . .


Savoy Cabbage, Carrot & Matsubara Blue #2 KS Nashiji Gyuto, 240mm

Savoy is relatively light and feathery, so a bit more knife than I needed here but a watermelon was next, so I think it was the right call.

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ronnie_suburban wrote:Leftovers tonight but a quick turn-around the weekly slaw . . .

Cobbled together the final half-slab of Sunday's leftover ribs and some leftover side dishes from Mirabella, then realized we needed a bit more food. So, I grilled up some fresh Polish sausage and smoked kielbasa . . .


Charcoal-Grilled Sausages
Smoked on the left, fresh on the right. Other than the ribs which I already posted pics of a few days ago, the rest of dinner was the sides that that we, very glamorously, ate from the foil pans in which Mirabella packed them up.

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Nuri Spiced Sardines in Olive Oil make for delicious Desk Deenz w/club crackers and Valentina.

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Sardines, count me a Fan!

G Wiv wrote:Nuri Spiced Sardines in Olive Oil make for delicious Desk Deenz w/club crackers and Valentina.

And you broke out the Spyderco, too! Nice little school of fish you lined up there!

Super simple dinner that punched way above its weight class, relative to the small number of ingredients and ease of preparation.


Mise En Place & Matsubara Blue #2 KS Nashiji Gyuto, 240mm
Shiro miso, minced garlic, unsalted butter and broccoli. Setting up for a side dish of steamed broccoli with miso garlic butter. After the broccoli was steamed, I melted the butter until just before it browned, killed the heat, then whisked in the miso and the minced garlic.

Main course was one of our new favorites and a tried and true stand-by . . .


Grilling
Hatcho miso and sake-marinated short ribs. To achieve maximum char, I can only grill four or five at a time. This prolongs the grill time, so makes sense to build a slightly bigger than normal fire. Even though it took a while, I managed to just beat the rain.


On The Platter
I love the simplicity and complex flavor of this prep. Before grilling, I marinated them for about 24 hours. First time purchasing the short ribs at Fresh Farms and while they were relatively inexpensive ($8.99/#), even after a lengthy cleaning, they were more bone-chippy than any others I've ever purchased elsewhere.


Plated Up
With rice cooker'd jasmine rice. Have to say that the miso garlic butter broccoli was one of the best broccoli preps I can remember making.

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Mostly leftovers tonight but I thought some Korean-inspired glazed eggplant would be a well-matched accompaniment for last night's short ribs, and a great way to great RID of some aging eggplant . . .


Mise En Place & Konosuke Fujiyama FM Blue #2 Gyuto, 210mm
Toasted sesame oil, rice vinegar, gochujang, red pepper sauce, evoo, minced garlic, Tupelo honey and sliced eggplant.

Par-baked the eggplant until it was soft. While that was happening, I made a glaze with everything else. Once the eggplant was soft, I glazed it and broiled it for about 10 minutes (with a touch of water drizzled on the sheet pan to prevent any burning).


Broiled & Glazed Eggplant
Garnished with chives. We had this with some reheated short ribs from last night and a blob of the weekly slaw.

Happy Monday!

=R=

G Wiv wrote:Nuri Spiced Sardines in Olive Oil make for delicious Desk Deenz w/club crackers and Valentina.

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Sardines, count me a Fan!

Liked not loved them. The clove put me off. Reminds me of sage in hot links.

Goodness from the farmer's market, my garden, and, uh, Jewel:

Hen of the woods (FM), pan roasted with garlic, butter, fresh thyme (G) and topped with a fried egg.

Salad of spinach, tomato (G), cuke, apple, bell pepper (G), pistachios, and goat cheese rolled in pistachios (FM), vinaigrette with lemon juice, sherry vinegar, pistachio and olive oils, Dijon, sage, honey, s&p.

Fresh-baked boule with high quality butter.

Great, great meal.

Jazzfood wrote:Liked not loved them. The clove put me off. Reminds me of sage in hot links.

Not quite the same, but still reminds me of the time you went full Pout on the poor server in West Town for having the temerity to add sage, or was it rosemary, to fries. Classic Alan

There is world of sardines, besides King Oscar, that I am just starting to explore. Though I still love the classic KO in olive oil.

Sage in hot links, we agree to disagree.

Pad ka-prao . . .


Mise En Place & Konosuke Fujiyama FM Blue #2 Gyuto, 210mm
Soy sauce, dark sweet soy sauce, fish sauce, garlic & shallots, Thai birds eye chiles, oyster sauce, Golden Mountain, veg oil, Thai basil leaves and coarsely ground pork.

As usual, the mortar & pestle did a fine job turning the shallots, garlic and chiles into a pulpy mash.


Shallot, Garlic & Chile Mash

Also on the menu, and not a particularly great match, were brussels sprouts . . .


Seared & Steamed Brussels Sprouts
With garlic and a balsamic glaze. Seared them in some evoo. Once browned, I added some minced garlic and as soon as that got fragrant, I added some warm water and covered them for about 10 minutes. Once they'd steamed to the desired softness, I drizzled in some balsamic and cranked up the heat until all the water had evaporated and the balsamic had thickened.


Plated Up
With reheated jasmine rice and a frizzled egg. Magically, some green beans also showed up in the finished dish! (remembered I had these after things were pretty far along but it worked out alright).

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Pad ka-prao Looks wonderful.

G Wiv wrote:Pad ka-prao Looks wonderful.

Thanks. It was good but as many times as I've made this, it's never come out the same twice. There are only a few variables but I've yet to really nail them all down batch to batch. So, the end product has a range. Not sure I'll ever really get it completely tightened up. Maybe that doesn't matter, since I'm not cooking for paying customers. I put it on the table and it disappears every time. There are no complaints but the tips are garbage.

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ronnie_suburban wrote:There are no complaints but the tips are garbage.

Literally, since you probably have to take it out after dinner

G Wiv wrote:

ronnie_suburban wrote:There are no complaints but the tips are garbage.

Literally, since you probably have to take it out after dinner

Hehe, sometimes but usually cooking gets me out of it.

Hectic day at work, so tonight I kind of mailed it in but still ended up with a nice dinner . . .


Mise En Place & Yoshikazu Tanaka Blue #1 Gyuto, 210mm
Green bell pepper, evoo, dried oregano, minced garlic, white vinegar, yellow onion and white wine. Prepping the nest for some sausages. I hadn't used this knife in a while but tonight's prep made me want to leave it on the board for a few more days. After gliding through the onions, peppers and garlic -- and scoring the sausages -- I was looking for other things to cut.


On The Platter
Charcoal-grilled sausages on a bed of sauteed/stewed onions and peppers. Is that dinner or are you just happy to see me?

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Needed freezer space so made lobster stock w/the 2 shelves worth of crustacean shells I managed to accumulate (yielded about 4 gallons). Many applications but my favorite is this pasta I've been cooking since it was on the menu @ East Bank Club in the middle 80's where I cooked it 1,000+ times. Based on a new cookbook by Paul Prudhomme (his 1st I believe) it was known as Cajun Shrimp and Oysters over Linguine.

We made a compound butter w/his then new blackening spice recipe, some shallots and sherry. The darker the spicer (mine is just short of cocoa brown but do it to your taste). My father-in-law lives in New Mexico and sends us Hatch peppers so I add some as well and increases the heat significantly which Missus Jazzfood and I prefer. Saute U 15's until rare, toss in shucked oysters just to warm thru not cook. Reserve. Deglaze w/lobster stock and chives, reduce by 1/2 w/reserved liquids. Add shrimp and oysters, al dente seasoned linguine and toss w/asiago (I know). Adjust seasonings.

Scratches the itch and a go-to meal during the plague.

super busy at work using all my bandwidth so a humble request for inspiration: gonna grill some chicken thighs, but need autumnal accompaniments!

Jazzfood wrote:Based on a new cookbook by Paul Prudhomme (his 1st I believe) it was known as Cajun Shrimp and Oysters over Linguine.

Nice. And if Prudhomme says it's okay to mix cheese and seafood, well, then it's okay and don't even question it!

annak wrote:super busy at work using all my bandwidth so a humble request for inspiration: gonna grill some chicken thighs, but need autumnal accompaniments!

Based on what we're getting in our CSA box lately, brussels sprouts, cabbage, bell peppers, kale, leeks, regular and sweet potatoes, carrots and hard squash are all going strong right now. Do you prefer to grill the accompaniments, too or is cooking them inside a viable option?

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