jlawrence01 wrote:All of the OXO products in my kitchen were purchased by my wife. I really do not like them as they are bulky and do not do the job as well as the classical designs.

For the most part, I feel the same way but I do like a can opener and a whisk by them that I have. Generally, I think their products are focused more on ergonomics than functionality.

Bspar wrote:Gelatin in chili also works really well. I use the powder and have never detected a flavor difference, but have also not tested.

Okay, thanks. Chili actually sounds like a good application for gelatin. I may give it a go.

=R=

It was 'back to one' tonight, with grilled chicken thighs and a few sidelights . . .


Salad Dressing Mise En Place
Picked up some ranch seasoning (in the pouch) months ago and finally remembered I had it. We've been having a lot of salads lately, so it was good timing, since mixing it up is a key to keeping them interesting. Also used minced shallot and a clove of garlic (on top of the sour cream) that I later microplaned.


Dressing
Love the lidded tumbler, which makes it easy to get it all together.


Salad
Yeah, I overdid it but since the dressing was -- by far -- the best part, why not?

There was also a side dish . . .


Sauteed Zucchini Mise En Place & Konosuke Western Petty, 150mm
Zucchini, evoo, slivered garlic and minced shallots.


Sauteed Zucchini
Cooked hot and fast so it didn't get too sweet. Used a touch of hot water at the end, which allowed me to minimize the cooking time and still achieve the desired texture.

And there was deep-freeze charcoal grilling, too . . .


Fire In The Hole!
It was 9F outside, so standing next to the grill was actually not bad.


Grilling
Took about 22 minutes, covered on the indirect side.


Plated Up
Grilled chicken thighs and sauteed zucchini. Yeah, I went a little nuts on the garlic/shallot oil but it was really delicious.

=R=

Super Bowl Zhongzi. Sticky rice, lop cheong, pork belly.

bw77 wrote:Super Bowl Zhongzi. Sticky rice, lop cheong, pork belly.

Yes Sir Senator !

bw77 wrote:Super Bowl Zhongzi. Sticky rice, lop cheong, pork belly.

Nice! How'd they turn out?

For us, it was a Sunday roast . . .


Sirloin Tip Roast
Seasoned with salt and black pepper, and patted with olive oil. As you can probably tell, this one was expertly trussed by a professional: Dave at Zier's Prime Meats.


Leeks & Butter
Prepping for a side dish, I 'melted' the leeks in some butter. I cooked these over low heat -- adding splashes of water along the way -- for a few hours, until they were tender and slightly caramelized.


Roast & Konosuke SKD Tsuchime Gyuto, 240mm
Even though I also cooked the roast low and slow, it curled up a bit. That had no bearing on its doneness or tenderness, both of which were spot on. I probably could have used any knife to slice it but the SKD jumped out at me, so I gave it the green light.


Plated Up
With garlic-red wine mushrooms, cauliflower, melted leek & garlic confit mash, and a pan sauce thickened with roux. My son told me it looked like a textbook boarding house dinner. I think he meant that as a compliment.

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:My son told me it looked like a textbook boarding house dinner. I think he meant that as a compliment. :roll

Nice! I’m sure it was a compliment. Plate looks great.
What cut of beef is that?

G Wiv wrote:

ronnie_suburban wrote:My son told me it looked like a textbook boarding house dinner. I think he meant that as a compliment. :roll

Nice! I’m sure it was a compliment. Plate looks great.
What cut of beef is that?

Thanks. Sirloin tip roast, which was originally recommended to me by Dave Zier many years ago. It's a tender and flavorful cut and because it's relatively lean, it's good leftover, too.

=R=

Nice! How'd they turn out?

Turned out well, thanks. These were simmered for a little over three hours. The pork becomes very, very tender and the fat melds with the sticky rice. The sausage lends a bit of spicy sweetness.

ronnie_suburban wrote:Thanks. Sirloin tip roast

Nice, thought so. A favorite in our house as well. Ellen calls them "String Roast," when she was a child her and her siblings fought over who got to chew on the flavorful string.

G Wiv wrote:

ronnie_suburban wrote:Thanks. Sirloin tip roast

Nice, thought so. A favorite in our house as well. Ellen calls them "String Roast," when she was a child her and her siblings fought over who got to chew on the flavorful string.

Oh, wow. That just dislodged a previously-buried childhood memory of doing the same. As a lad, I used to love to chew on the roast strings.

Looks like it's going to be a leftovers-focused beginning of the week. So, not much "cooking" per se, getting today's lunch ready but I did manage to RID myself of a few things I'd cooked earlier . . .


Big Salad
Managed to finish off the following, previously made items:

buttermilk ranch salad dressing
tuna salad
egg salad
melted leeks
roasted pepper paste

I also finished off a portion cup of roasted peppers & hazelnuts that were leftover from a carry-out dinner. We're still working through industrial-sized bins of toasted pepitas, mini tomatoes, arugula and mixed greens, which means more salads are probably on the horizon. But this salad made a nice dent, even though I'll probably be hungry again very soon.

Happy Monday!

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:

G Wiv wrote:Oh, wow. That just dislodged a previously-buried childhood memory of doing the same. As a lad, I used to love to chew on the roast strings.
=R=

Gary's post slipped past me, but your post also dislodged the same childhood memory. Those strings were the best.

As was foretold, assorted leftovers -- reserved, reheated and repurposed -- for dinner tonight. Hardly a compromise, though. All of these were better tonight than when I originally made them. Of course, with the pork loin, that required a bit of manipluation . . .


Assorted Leftovers
Re-heated chile verde pork stew (for the Mrs & me), a portion of this week's slaw and a slice of pork loin roast that had been dredged in seasoned flour and shallow fried. As soups and stews often do, the chile verde got better after a couple days with everything melding in the fridge. The slaw is just about at its sweet spot. One more day and it'll begin its way downhill.

Once again, happy Monday!

=R=

Most of last night's dinner was new from a noon shopping trip, but I'm proud to have finally used up the dregs of a bottle of port after seeing it as a substitute for sweet marsala in a chicken marsala recipe, and an old shallot from the bottom fridge drawer. Jewel had thin-sliced chicken breast, and mushrooms on sale. Dredge in flour and s&p, sautee in a mix of butter and olive oil, remove, then a minced shallot, mushrooms. When nicely browned, add the port, more s&p, several ice cubes of homemade stock, return the chicken to the sauce to warm and serve with crisped rounds of shelf-stable precooked polenta (which took longer to brown than I'd expected, note to self for the second half of the tube).

JoelF wrote:. . . I'm proud to have finally used up the dregs of a bottle of port after seeing it as a substitute for sweet marsala in a chicken marsala recipe, and an old shallot from the bottom fridge drawer.

Yes, nice! I love getting rid of stuff. Your dinner sounds tasty.

We're celebrating my son's birthday, so it looks like delivery for dinner tonight (his call) but because I had an early morning meeting, I had time to cook myself brunch after it ended . . .


Plated Up
Cheddar omelet, fried bologna and buttered toast (bread baked by a friend).

=R=

Early in the pandemic, I did a Costco run. One of the things I bought was a bag of frozen vegetables, a stir-fry blend. I think I wanted to make sure we had vegetables if there was some interruption in supply. Fortunately, that didn't come to pass. Meanwhile, this bag of vegetables lives on in the freezer. Anything I do with these constitutes "corona cuisine" because I wouldn't have purchased them otherwise! For lunch today, I cooked a bunch of the vegetables in a lightly oiled pan then added leftover rice and a bloop or two of leftover miso/mirin/soy/OJ mixture. It was a satisfying lunch and the bag of vegetables is getting lighter.

Meals have been tasty but nothing exceptional lately: roast chicken; capellini with caramelized onions and fresh mozzarella; leftover roast chicken turned into enchiladas with lime slaw; flash roasted pork tenderloin with soy-dijon-honey glaze and crispy mushroom pierogis; burgers with homemade onion dip and collard greens. Will try for more exciting reports soon.
The big news is the in-laws have received their second shot and want to come visit the grandkid after their longest ever separation, so next week we'll be cooking for other people for the first time since yard dinner weather - looking forward to some ambitious celebratory things, though of course we're still shopping rarely and therefore not doing much specialty food store stuff.

annak wrote:The big news is the in-laws have received their second shot and want to come visit the grandkid after their longest ever separation, so next week we'll be cooking for other people for the first time since yard dinner weather . . .

Nice. Maybe just a smidge of getting back to normal.

I'm in the middle of a three-night stretch of not cooking anything (new) for dinner, which has been good and bad. But it's my son's birthday, so we ordered sushi delivery and I made him a cake, my first-ever cake . . .


Yellow Cake with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

He looks a lot like me, so I know he's probably mine but I do wonder sometimes because he doesn't like chocolate! In any case, that's why the frosting isn't chocolate. The cake and the frosting were both very tasty but the cake was way too dense. He really liked it, which is all that matters but if I had to do it over again, I'd hope (and adjust) for something fluffier.

=R=

More cooking with old and new. Inspired by a Milk Street recipe of a grilled steak marinated in rosemary and pomegranate molasses. Not wanting to grill, and knowing that doing the steak in cast iron would be a burnt mess...
So I had an acorn squash that's been on the counter at least a month, an onion (almost sprouting) and a head of radicchio (new), all sliced, roasted; t-bone steak seared in the cast iron; pom molasses that's been in the pantry, fresh rosemary from the window box I brought in last fall, knob of butter, shallot, aleppo pepper, a little water, 90 seconds in the science oven -- great sauce for the veg and the steak.

I've been a little burnt out on cooking for a bit, this week I finally feel like I've got my groove back.

Quart chicken stock from the freezer + frozen spinach, egg slurry, lemon juice = Stracciatella. Would have grated a little parm on top but we are going very light salt.

click to enlarge


Homemade Chicken stock, count me a Fan!

ronnie_suburban wrote:
He looks a lot like me, so I know he's probably mine but I do wonder sometimes because he doesn't like chocolate!

=R=

I have one of those. BUT, by the same token, we both love plain cake more than any. I also make out like a bandit on Halloween. He'll save a few chocolate things, but for the most part, he throws it all my way if the Mrs. doesn't intercept. She's regular Charles Woodson when it comes to all things Reese's Peanut Butter.

Quart chicken stock from the freezer + daikon radish cubes, arugula, tomato, H-Mart dumplings, rice, sesame oil, soy, lemon juice. Plus side of rice w/ furikake & nori w/wasabi = lunch.

click to enlarge



Soup, count me a Fan!

JoelF wrote:I've been a little burnt out on cooking for a bit, this week I finally feel like I've got my groove back.

Yeah, it comes and goes, right? I've been doing a lot of cooking (even on the nights I'm not as fired up about it) but it's even more rewarding when I'm feeling inspired and really engaged in the process.

G Wiv wrote:Quart chicken stock from the freezer + frozen spinach, egg slurry, lemon juice = Stracciatella. Would have grated a little parm on top but we are going very light salt.

Looks great. I have to make this very soon! Do you have a suggestion for a spinach to broth ratio?

seebee wrote:I also make out like a bandit on Halloween. He'll save a few chocolate things, but for the most part, he throws it all my way if the Mrs. doesn't intercept.

Yeah, nice. I used to enjoy a similar arrangement, though it still pained me just a little to see my own offspring on such a misguided path.

G Wiv wrote:Soup, count me a Fan!

Clearly. You are throwing down lately on the soup front.

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:Do you have a suggestion for a spinach to broth ratio?

Sort of. I tossed in a scant handful of spinach. Stirred, did not look like enough so I tossed in more.

Best regards,
Gary "The Science Guy" Wiv

As i've probably said before, and in the great Ronnie tradition, we eat a lot of bone-in chicken thighs. Tonight I tried a sam sifton (nyt) recipe we hadn't done before: mix softened butter with white miso and honey and a little rice vinegar, massage into the thighs, roast at high temp, flipping a few times to get good caramelization all over. We enjoyed it, and in the little roasting pan was quite a sauce of buttery schmaltz. i could see adding a little heat for balance - which we got from kimchi. rice with scallions and furikake, steamed broccoli, and cubed pineapple rounded it out.

I forgot to mention that the other night we ordered fancy sushi from Mako and it was very very good, presented (at some expense) in a thin wooden bento box with a compartment for each course. it was a little celebration of a work achievement. but throughout the pandemic we've been ordering Komorebi and finding it better than most sushi takeout (our dine-in fave is Kai-Zan).

G Wiv wrote:Gary "The Science Guy" Wiv

One thing I have been doing when added egg to soup, be it egg-drop, stracciatella etc is add a scant tablespoon or so of corn starch to three well whipped eggs, plus a dash of salt and let them sit a while, maybe ten - twenty minutes.

When adding eggs, at the very end, I re-whip well, making sure the soup is at a light boil and slowly drizzle in egg over the back of the spoon/fork/whisk (whatever I used to whip the eggs) in increments stirring the soup between egg add-ins.

This method seems to result in a lighter, fluffier, well distributed egg mixture.

annak wrote:As i've probably said before, and in the great Ronnie tradition, we eat a lot of bone-in chicken thighs. Tonight I tried a sam sifton (nyt) recipe we hadn't done before: mix softened butter with white miso and honey and a little rice vinegar, massage into the thighs, roast at high temp, flipping a few times to get good caramelization all over. We enjoyed it, and in the little roasting pan was quite a sauce of buttery schmaltz. i could see adding a little heat for balance - which we got from kimchi. rice with scallions and furikake, steamed broccoli, and cubed pineapple rounded it out.

That sounds great. I wonder if I could swap in koji for the miso. I have a decent supply on hand that I want to start messing around with.

G Wiv wrote:One thing I have been doing when added egg to soup, be it egg-drop, stracciatella etc is add a scant tablespoon or so of corn starch to three well whipped eggs, plus a dash of salt and let them sit a while, maybe ten - twenty minutes.

When adding eggs, at the very end, I re-whip well, making sure the soup is at a light boil and slowly drizzle in egg over the back of the spoon/fork/whisk (whatever I used to whip the eggs) in increments stirring the soup between egg add-ins.

This method seems to result in a lighter, fluffier, well distributed egg mixture.

Fine but you're still keeping the amount of spinach a secret?!

=R=

G Wiv wrote:Quart chicken stock from the freezer + frozen spinach, egg slurry, lemon juice = Stracciatella. Would have grated a little parm on top but we are going very light salt.

Well, you definitely inspired me . . .


Mise En Place & Ku Kurosaki Sasame Petty, 120mm
Hot Italian sausage balls, shallots, eggs, lemon, 4x homemade chicken stock, spinach, evoo, corn starch, salt and black pepper. As advised by the man with the plan, I created a slurry with 2 tsp of corn starch and a splash of cold water, and beat that into the eggs before I eventually drizzled it all into the simmering soup. In case anyone cares, I made about two quarts of soup (half my 4x stock + 1.5 quarts of water) and used half of the one-pound tub of baby spinach. But I'll admit that I just kept throwing it in until it seemed about right. It was only afterwards that I concluded I'd used about half a pound of spinach.

As for the knife, it might be the quintessential shallot slayer.


Balls-A-Searing
Browned the sausage balls in a bit of evoo, them removed them until about 10 minutes before I was ready to serve (when I put them back in to complete their cooking). After the balls came out, I sweated the shallot in the renderings, then added the stock/water combination and let that all simmer for a while. Later, once I'd put the balls back in and they'd come to temperature, I slowly drizzled/stirred in the egg/corn starch mixture, followed by the spinach. Once it wilted suitably, I turned off the heat, adjusted the salt and pepper, and squeezed in some lemon juice.


Plated Up
Garnished with grated Grana Padano, which mostly melted on contact. There was also a pretty nicely dressed green salad but with soup this good, no one cares about the frigging salad. Great stuff, Gary. Thanks, for the inspiration!

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:Browned the sausage balls

Soup looks terrific and, I might add, your balls are wonderfully symmetrical. Grana Padano is a nice finishing touch.

Covid shot today in Evanston and took the opportunity to stop two places not on my beaten path, Trader Joe's, where I bought a few kinds of cookies, including Triple Ginger Snap cookies, hat tip Jazzfood, and fixings for making hot chocolate, my new obsession.

Also stopped at the Keg on Howard, shrimp, lake perch and the special of cod. Munched the cod in the car, was delicious, brought the rest home for lunch. The Keg keeps chugging along and, in comparison to Hagen's, service was super friendly, efficient and the woman at the counter simply made me feel happy in the short time of our interaction.

I like Hagen's but feel the staff does not do justice to the product. For example, every time I go to Hagen's I have to remind the counter person not to put steaming hot fish in the same bag as cold fish dip, slaw and tarter sauce.

Fish Keg doesn't seem to have a dedicated thread, so I'm going to ask my question here.

The one time I stopped there the fried fish I purchased (don't remember what type - probably shrimp and/or perch) was cooked in oil that should have been changed a week earlier and overcooked at that. I couldn't finish eating it. It was sooooo bad. I surmised that the place had been good once but had gone downhill.

Yet, many people still speak favorably about their fish. Did I go there on a horrible, very bad day? Do I need to use a secret handshake to get the good stuff? Should I try again?

Inquiring eater wants to know.

Giovanna

Giovanna wrote:Yet, many people still speak favorably about their fish. Did I go there on a horrible, very bad day? Do I need to use a secret handshake to get the good stuff?

Re Fish Keg on Howard
I don't go often, two three times a year, always enjoy the Fish Keg when I do, no secret handshake necessary.

Giovanna wrote:Should I try again?

Yes.

In the last month I've been to both Hagen's and Fish Keg, like them both, though the service at Fish Keg makes Hagen's seem amateur. (wrong orders, abrupt, hot/cold mixed in same bag, distracted, impatient)

I've also recently been to Calumet Fisheries with the bride, we got an order of fried scallops to eat in the car but Calumet is all about the smoked fish, at least for me. And yes, Calumet Fisheries was wonderful, as always.