G Wiv wrote: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)

Giovanna post in the Culver's thread reminds me, even though I've been dissing Hagen's counter service pretty hard, Hagen's fish sandwich is one of, if not the, best in Chicagoland.

Took a wild stab at Souped Up Recipes' Lions Head Meatballs. At one critical point, things went off the rails in a major way but in the end, I don't think it affected the flavor of the final dish too much. It tasted great, even though it wasn't fantastic looking. All's well that ends well, I guess. The prep essentially breaks down into three phases: aromatic water, meatballs and braising liquid . . .


Aromatic Water Mise En Place & Gihei HAP40 Nakiri, 165mm
Smashed garlic cloves, sichuan peppercorns, scallions, corn starch, water and smashed ginger root. All of this except the corn starch go into the food processor to create a puree. And wow, that nakiri!


Aromatic Water
Once processed, the aromatic water is strained, after which it's combined with the corn starch and set aside for later.


Pork Belly & Perceval Forged Chef Knife, 270mm
I bought this knife while on a trip to France about 10 years ago. Not sure what possessed me but it's beautiful and useful for some larger butchering tasks.


Meatball Preparation
Bamboo shoots, pork belly, salt, oyster sauce, granulated sugar, soy sauce, white pepper and shiitake mushrooms.


Pork Belly & Dexter Cleaver
Oh, this didn't go well. First, I tried my meat grinder but the meat was too fatty/not cold enough and it smeared pretty badly. So, I figured I should mince it up by hand. The Dexter handled it but there was just so much fat it also began the smear. I should have just followed SUR's method, the traditional method, but I figured there was more than one way to handle it. And I'm sure there is but I didn't get there today. In my defense, her belly was a lot leaner than what I had on hand. Since these are supposed to be very tender meatballs -- with no binder other than corn starch -- I think that getting the correct cut on the meat is critical.


Further Meatball Prep
Oyster sauce, soy sauce, bamboo shoots, granulated sugar, diced pork belly, white pepper, aromatic water, salt, shiitake mushrooms and corn starch.


Meatball Preparation
Most everything now mixed together in the large bowl, with the aromatic water and corn starch now combined into a slurry in the pyrex.


Meatball Mixture
Everything combined and having been stirred in one direction for about 5 minutes. I could sense that I was heading toward trouble. With no binder and very fatty meat, this mixture was pretty loose. I could form balls but they had no structural integrity. Once formed, the balls are supposed to be briefly fried before their final cook but I wasn't sure that was the best move here. I pondered it while I went on to the next step.


Braising Liquid Mise En Place
Cinnamon stick, bay leaves, star anise & sichuan peppercorns, soy sauce, dark soy sauce, ginger root, smashed garlic cloves, scallions, shaoxing wine, peanut oil and granulated sugar.


Building The Braise
After the sugar gets caramelized in the hot oil, everything else goes in until it becomes fragrant. My kitchen smelled awesome!


Braising Liquid
Once everything starts smelling great, several cups of water are added and it's all brought to a simmer, awaiting the par-cooked meatballs.


"Meatballs?"
More like meatblobs. In lieu of frying, I decided to convection roast these for about 15 minutes. I just didn't want to commit to a large frying step knowing that the entire dish was on the precipice. They were incredibly fragile but smelled and tasted great.


Braising
I was able to get the par-roasted meatblobs into the braise more or less intact. They filled the pot nicely, so there wasn't too much jostling, which would have caused further deterioration. These simmered, covered, for just over an hour.


Plated Up
With steamed bok choy and garnished with chili crisp. I'm really glad I stuck with this because after those meatblobs came out of the oven, I was considering pitching them and saving the braising liquid for another day. But in the end, the dish was really tasty. The meatblobs were delicious, even if super ugly and a bit more fragile than they should have been. And the resulting soup was also fantastic. Next time, I'd either cut the belly in the traditional manner or try it with shoulder instead of belly. And yeah, I think frying the balls would be best, too.

=R=

I've made a completely different dish called lion's head meatballs, also called porcupine meatballs: you roll the meatball in rice and steam them, and the rice puffs outward looking like a mane or porcupine quills.

JoelF wrote:I've made a completely different dish called lion's head meatballs, also called porcupine meatballs: you roll the meatball in rice and steam them, and the rice puffs outward looking like a mane or porcupine quills.

Per Souped Up Recipes, these supposedly "got the name from its shape, which resembles the head of Chinese guardian lions." My version resembled no creature real or imagined.

=R=

As annoying as the weather has been, the world outside our house is just one big walk-in freezer, so meats are keeping very nicely in a cooler outside our back door. And my garage is holding in the mid-30's F, so produce, etc. stored there is lasting a while, too. I'm still working the RID path, and managed to finish off the dark/better end of last week's pork loin roast tonight . . .


Eggplant & Kohetsu Addict Blue #2 Gyuto, 240mm
I should know by now but this knife never fails to surprise me. Honestly, who needs a mandolin? You'd think this beefy knife couldn't handle such thin cuts but it handles them easily and accurately. Here, I sliced the eggplant into thin discs and salted them for about 90 minutes to draw out some of their bitterness.


Garlic, Shallots & Yu Kurosaki VG10 Fujin Petty, 120mm
I sauteed these briefly in evoo before adding the drained eggplant, some chopped tomatoes, some dried oregano and some water, then simmered it all over low heat for about an hour. The Fujin knives are so beautiful, I wish I had a pocket knife version, so it could be part of my edc.


Plated Up
Even though they were cut from the better end of the loin roast, the pork chops needed some help. I brined them, dredged them, pan-fried them to create a crust and then finished them in the oven. I served them with the stewed eggplant and some leftover pan sauce from last weekend's roast.

=R=

Winter melon, Hanalogo mushroom and Ta Ku Choy soup. Stock from a stewing hen simmered for twelve hours with star anise, galangal, garlic and Chinese celery.

bw77 wrote:Winter melon, Hanalogo mushroom and Ta Ku Choy soup. Stock from a stewing hen simmered for twelve hours with star anise, galangal, garlic and Chinese celery.

Nice. If not now for soup, when? It's been a memorable week of weather and it's not over just yet.

For dinner we finished up the soups and stews I made during the past week and I cooked a pot of beans to augment dinner and take us through at least a few days of the upcoming week . . .


Mise En Place & Takamura Chromax Gyuto, 210mm
Jalapenos, serranos, red onion, salt, evoo, Rancho Gordo Christmas Lima Beans, minced garlic, black pepper and bay leaf. I had a bit of time, so I soaked the beans for a couple of hours, then used the soaking water to cook them. As much as I love beans, I generally do not like lima beans but I had these, so I figured I should try them. RG's stuff is always great so, not surprisingly, they were the best lima beans I've ever had. I received them as part of a bean club shipment but I'd buy them again, for sure. They held together nicely but had very tender skins, as well as creamy interiors that were not chalky at all.


Plated Up
With sliced scallion tops and one of the slitted serranos from the pot.

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Recipe inspired by Fuchsia Dunlop's 'Pock-Marked Woman's Bean Curd' but with many changes.
Scallions greens fine sliced, Pixian Sichuan Broad Bean Paste: https://www.amazon.com/Pixian-Sichuan-X ... 317&sr=8-3, Ground Pork with Dark soy sauce and vermouth mixed in, Thin sliced seeded serano, Dried shiitake mushrooms re-hydrated and chopped, chicken stock, fine chopped garlic, red pepper flakes, toasted sesame oil, corn starch slurry, extra firm tofu with a lot of water pressed out, toasted and ground sichuan peppercorns.
In a wok, fry the tofu on high heat, gently flipping until most sides are browned. Then remove tofu from wok.
Fry the pork until mostly cooked. Add chili bean paste, garlic, red pepper flakes, serrano, and a little sesame oil. Cook for a minute or 2.
Add back tofu and add stock. Let simmer for 5 minutes to allow tofu to absorb flavors. Add corn starch slurry and let thicken.
Plate up and sprinkle Sichuan peppercorns over.

Today,

I am trying two new dishes that I have never prepared before.

First, I made up pimento cheese spread. I was rather surprised how simple it was. The only thing that I will do differently the next time is to use blanched red bell pepper in lieu of canned pimentos which is something that I generally do not have in my pantry. I made this more for my neighbor than for us as this is his favorite dish.

Second, I am cooking a kabocha squash (also known as Japanese pumpkin). While it was tempting to cook it like an acorn squash, I decided to slowly braise it in a dashi, soy sauce, and sugar stock. I was somewhat skeptical about the claim that there was no need to peel the squash. However, that worked very well.

jlawrence01 wrote:First, I made up pimento cheese spread. I was rather surprised how simple it was. The only thing that I will do differently the next time is to use blanched red bell pepper in lieu of canned pimentos which is something that I generally do not have in my pantry. I made this more for my neighbor than for us as this is his favorite dish.

I highly recommend mincing a little green olive in your pimento cheese. Smoking Goose uses it, and we really liked it; we added some to a recent batch of pimento cheese and indeed it was a game changer.

lougord99 wrote:Recipe inspired by Fuchsia Dunlop's 'Pock-Marked Woman's Bean Curd' but with many changes.

<snip>

Plate up and sprinkle Sichuan peppercorns over.

Nice! A very loose riff on mapo? I'm going to have to try this one soon. Did you grind/toast the peppercorns or just sprinkle them whole/raw?

jlawrence01 wrote:I am trying two new dishes that I have never prepared before.

First, I made up pimento cheese spread. I was rather surprised how simple it was. The only thing that I will do differently the next time is to use blanched red bell pepper in lieu of canned pimentos which is something that I generally do not have in my pantry. I made this more for my neighbor than for us as this is his favorite dish.

Second, I am cooking a kabocha squash (also known as Japanese pumpkin). While it was tempting to cook it like an acorn squash, I decided to slowly braise it in a dashi, soy sauce, and sugar stock. I was somewhat skeptical about the claim that there was no need to peel the squash. However, that worked very well.

I love pimento cheese spread and always find the most laborious part to be grating the cheese. I like to add a splash of worcestershire sauce, a la Pigmon.

I've been peeling veg less and less frequently. Not just with hard squash but with soft squash, eggplant, carrots, etc. It's often not necessary and not doing so saves time. I also like how certain items taste better and hold together better when cooked if they're not peeled.

I also tried something today I'd never tried before: a crustless deep dish pizza a la Lou Malnati's. It really is an abomination albeit, a delicious one. But we had some hot Italian sausage (from the grocery store) on hand that was ready to use and sometimes, you just have to follow someone's bliss, even if it's not your own . . .


Sauce Mise En Place & Takamura Chromax Gyuto, 210mm
Minced onion, grated garlic, evoo, crushed San Marzano tomatoes (draining), tomato paste, red chile flakes & dried oregano and dried basil.

Started with sauteing the onions and spices in evoo, then added the fresh garlic, tomatoes and tomato paste. I ended up adding the drained tomato liquid back because even though it needed to thicken, before that, it needed some additional moisture to complete its simmer.


Sausage Base
Spicy Italian sausage from the grocery store, removed from its casings and smashed into a 9" cake pan. All your base are belong to us!


Mise En Place & Takamura Chromax Gyuto, 210mm
Pepperoni, grated mozzarella, sauce, Grana Padano and sausage base.

Assembly . . .


Cheese


Saucing
Gotta love the baby offset.


Sauced
Decided to sneak in some pulverized parmesan/romano blend, too.


Pepperoni
And a bit more of the pulverized blend.


Assembled
Just a bit of Grana Padano grated over the top before it hit the oven, 425F for ~40 minutes.


Baked
After it baked, I let it rest for about 10 minutes, hoping it would set up . . .


Plated Up
. . . but it was still a fairly gooey mess. Delicious, though. Maybe I should have baked it another 5 minutes, let it rest another 5 minutes or both.


Salad
Mixed greens, arugula, baby tomatoes and homemade buttermilk vinaigrette.

Happy Monday!

=R=

I wonder if it would help to blast the sausage in the pan for a few minutes to form a crust on the bottom before adding the rest of the toppings (and avoid the steaming that might result from the tomatoes).

Homemade hot chocolate w/whipped cream and a dash of amaretto. Snow what snow?

click to enlarge


Hot Chocolate, count me a Fan!

I would be tempted to make crustless pizza in an ovenproof skillet. Pack the sausage into the pan, brown it lightly on one side, carefully turn it over, brown the other side a little, pour off most of the grease, then assemble and bake long enough to melt the cheese and brown the top. But that's even less like pizza.

boudreaulicious wrote:I wonder if it would help to blast the sausage in the pan for a few minutes to form a crust on the bottom before adding the rest of the toppings (and avoid the steaming that might result from the tomatoes).

I think it was mainly a matter of good, old-fashioned overload. I just put too much of everything on there, especially the tomatoes because, well, that's my favorite part. But it was all cooked correctly. The sausage had a nice crust and was cooked through. Cooking the cheese more might have made it less gooey but I guess I shouldn't really be shooting for seized up cheese. And I could have let it sit for longer but the prospect of eating it cold isn't appealing, either. I thought of forming more of a lip around the edge of the sausage disc. Maybe that would have helped contain the innards.

Also, thinking about how Lou's delivers these, it seems they might be baked on a bed of foil that's buttressed around the circumference of the sausage disk. That "open" baking method -- and the fact that they're much more sparsely topped -- might explain the differences. I'd say I might make some adjustments next time but I really don't anticipate there being a next time . . . but you never know.

=R=

tjr wrote:I would be tempted to make crustless pizza in an ovenproof skillet. Pack the sausage into the pan, brown it lightly on one side, carefully turn it over, brown the other side a little, pour off most of the grease, then assemble and bake long enough to melt the cheese and brown the top. But that's even less like pizza.

I know, right? Deep dish is already not exactly pizza. Crustless takes it even farther away from being pizza and flipping that sausage patty around just about puts it in another area code. But I did think about all the rendered fat with nowhere to go and decided to just look the other way this time. Ironic because when I order a deep dish from Lou's, I always ask for sausage pieces, instead of the 'full coverage' they serve by default. However, when the sausage forms the actual base of your pizza, there's not much you can do about that.

=R=

G Wiv wrote:Hot Chocolate, count me a Fan!

Nice . . . 1:1 ratio, I assume?

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:

lougord99 wrote:Recipe inspired by Fuchsia Dunlop's 'Pock-Marked Woman's Bean Curd' but with many changes.

<snip>

Plate up and sprinkle Sichuan peppercorns over.

Nice! A very loose riff on mapo? I'm going to have to try this one soon. Did you grind/toast the peppercorns or just sprinkle them whole/raw?
=R=

Toasted in a dry pan and ground in a mortar.

Thanks for this one G Wiv. Just finishing lunch at my desk, took a big sip of my grapefruit water and read the following. Luckily, my keyboard still works...

G Wiv wrote:

ronnie_suburban wrote:Browned the sausage balls

Soup looks terrific and, I might add, your balls are wonderfully symmetrical.


Next quote?

janeyb wrote:

G Wiv wrote:Soup looks terrific and, I might add, your balls are wonderfully symmetrical.

Next quote?

Done!

Nice and easy dinner tonight . . .


Mise En Place & Anryu Kurouchi Damascus Gyuto, 210mm
Shallots, garlic, sliced shiitake caps & minced stems, black pepper, spinach, salt and sliced creminis.


Sauteed Mushrooms & Spinach
Garnished with fresh chives.


Boneless Rib Roast
This is about half of a 7+ pound roast I got from Costco. I trussed up this half for tonight, and the other half is sealed up and in the freezer for future use. I love rib roast but it doesn't make great leftovers because it's fatty and doesn't reheat well, so I didn't want to cook the whole thing at once.


Roasted
About 2.5 hours baked @ 200F, followed by 6 minutes convection roasted @450F.


Plated Up
Boneless rib roast, sauteed mushrooms & spinach and some re-roasted cauliflower that was leftover from a carry-out dinner last week. The roast was cooked nicely and plenty moist but not overly flavorful. I broke out some horseradish sauce moments after I snapped this pic.

=R=

Well, I had a jar of garlic black bean sauce that's been around for awhile, and some ground pork, and a package of lo mein noodles -- and thus a janky asian "bolognese" was born. Sweated a diced onion and a bunch of ginger, quickly marinated the meat in a mix of shaoxing, soy, sesame oil, sugar, browned the meat after the onions were translucent, made a little mixture of the garlic black bean sauce with tomato paste, more sesame oil, and a teensy bit of black vinegar; added the sauce to the browned meat, tossed with noodles and a little pasta water. Topped with scallions and basil. Side of snap peas. It was pretty successful. Maybe next time I'd add some carrot or mushroom all finely diced.

Brown the onions more, go heavy on the sauce and you'd be at jjajang myeon (aka chappaghetti)

annak wrote: -- and thus a janky asian "bolognese" was born.

LOL - that's hysterical. And it sounds really good, too. And I'm guessing it felt good to use up all those items, too. I just got a new wok and I really want to start breaking it in. Something free-form like this is exactly what I need to do to get rolling. On the nights I don't cook, I get downright antsy, and reading posts like this just make me miss it even more.

=R=

Fried fish with spicy topping.
Rough chopped garlic, jalapeno, shallots, fresh mint, lime leaves, fish sauce and Golden Mountain sauce.
Minimally process in mini food processor garlic, jalapeno, and shallots with 1/4 cup water to small pieces.
Simmer in a pan with sugar, salt, lime leaves 1 TBSP fish sauce and 3 TBSP Golden Mountain sauce for 20-30 minutes until thick.
Dredge Tilapia with rice flour and fry on high heat until brown on both sides.
Spoon mixture over fish, leaving behind the lime leaves and top with mint leaves

lougord99 wrote:Fried fish with spicy topping.

Wow, that looks great. Have you tried it with other types of fish, too?

For us, after a too-long interval, it was back to curry tonight. Combination of pantry raid and getting RID of some stuff . . .


Mise En Place & Yu Kurosaki Fujin VG10 Petty, 150mm
Everything except the chicken thigh meat. Leftover melted leeks, Penzey's Bangkok blend, mung bean sprouts, 4x homemade chicken stock, Thai bird chiles, coconut milk, bamboo shoots, Maesri red curry paste, gapi, fish sauce, basil leaves and zucchini.

I've had that Bangkok blend (sweet peppers, garlic, ginger, black pepper, galangal, hot peppers, lemon grass, basil and cilantro) for a while and can never figure out what to do with it, so I decided to sprinkle some into the mix. It added some nice notes but I still feel like there are better uses for it . . . maybe some grilled or broiled proteins.


Broccoli Rabe Mise En Place
Slivered garlic, salt, black pepper, broccoli rabe, evoo and red chile flakes. Just a quick saute into a steam.


Sauteed Broccoli Rabe
Once the 30ml of water evaporated, it was ready.


Plated Up
With jasmine rice.

I took last night off from cooking dinner, yet it felt like an eternity since I'd cooked. I was glad to be back over the wok tonight.

=R=

This is barely even a recipe, but it uses pantry staples and it's very good. There are exactly two ingredients:

Canned sardines in oil, and unagi sauce. You can also easily make unagi sauce by simmering together sake, mirin, soy sauce and sugar until it thickens.

Drain the oil, brush on the sauce, and broil in the toaster oven for 5-6 min, brushing a couple more times to build up a crispy glaze, and you get:

Sardine "unagi"! Sardines have a dense, meaty texture that reminds me of real unagi, and they taste great with the sauce. Top with sesame seeds and scallions and serve over a rice bowl.

I assume Unagi is readily obtained at Mitsuwa. I'm in.

just popped a dutch oven full of baby back ribs into a 350 for the next few hours. this oven method is from David Lebovitz, of Chez Panisse fame, and we like it very well (even though we also do ribs on the big green egg etc). his instructions involve cooking a caramel in the dutch oven, adding beer and bourbon and soy and some other good stuff, tossing the ribs in it, and baking.

also made some corn muffins (a nice smitten technique where you cook a little porridge of cornmeal and milk and add it to the rest of the batter; comes out super moist). and there will be salad.

happy friday all!

eating while walking wrote:Canned sardines in oil, and unagi sauce.

Um, yeah. Sign me up for that! As Lou asked, where do you get those items?

annak wrote:just popped a dutch oven full of baby back ribs into a 350 for the next few hours. this oven method is from David Lebovitz, of Chez Panisse fame, and we like it very well (even though we also do ribs on the big green egg etc). his instructions involve cooking a caramel in the dutch oven, adding beer and bourbon and soy and some other good stuff, tossing the ribs in it, and baking.

also made some corn muffins (a nice smitten technique where you cook a little porridge of cornmeal and milk and add it to the rest of the batter; comes out super moist). and there will be salad.

happy friday all!

Sounds like a nice combo. I can't believe you're not in the mood to dig out the BGE right now!

Two great things about having a garage hovering at 32-35F are that it provides unlimited food storage, and that the food stored there lasts a long time without having to be thawed before use. However, that may have disappointed my family, who had their sights set on ordering out tonight . . . until I found some perfectly good chicken thighs, purchased ~10 days ago, on a shelf next to my power drill!


Mise En Place & Konosuke Fujiyama FM Blue #2 Gyuto, 210mm
Salt, black pepper, red & green bell peppers, cream, white wine, evoo, onion/thyme/bay leaves, wine soaked chicken thighs, slivered garlic, tomato paste, white (maybe yellow?) carrot and celery.


Sear
Dried, seasoned with s&p and tossed into a very hot pan with a bit of evoo. They practically jumped after hitting the pan, and browned up right after that, creating a beautiful, golden-brown fond. After that, I removed the thighs, and tossed in the mirepoix to release the fond, followed by the garlic, the soaking wine, the bell peppers and everything else, including the seared thighs. Simmered it all covered for about 45 minutes until the chicken was done, removed the bird and reduced the rest of until it was nicely thick.


Plated Up
Chicken thighs, wine-tomato-cream sauce with Mrs. Suburban's world-renowned oven-roasted broccoli.

=R=

https://hot-thai-kitchen.com/pork-dumpl ... o-tutorial