What’s For Dinner #87 - the Holiday Menu Planning Edition - November 2022

Stir-Fried Sesame Chicken with Green Beans and Shiitake - sauce was a mix of chicken broth, Shaoxing wine, sriracha, soy sauce, toasted sesame seeds, toasted sesame oil, garlic and cornstarch

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Get better soon!

BF is out with work buddies “networking” (aka drinking). I wasn’t feeling the energy to cook for one, but also wanted to avoid spending $ on delivery. So, I made a cheese and relish plate for one - crackers, Cabot sharp cheddar, almonds, tomatoes, Castelvetrano olives, hot lime pickle (v. good with cheddar!), and hot pickled cherry peppers. Wine from a box.

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Meera Sodha’s junjaro (kidney beans curry), yogurt, naan, chaat masala slaw. We weren’t wowed by the beans.

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I’m not a rajma (kidney bean) fan, but it’s such a staple in north India that there are a lot of good recipes out there.

(My sil makes it in the IP with pureed-together ginger, garlic, onion, and tomatoes plus basic powdered spices - turmeric, chilli powder, cumin, coriander, and whole spices bloomed in oil at the outset - indian bay leaf, few cardamom pods, small piece of cinnamon, a clove or two, some whole cumin - or skip the whole spices and add powdered garam masala at the end. Cook till everything melds, finish with some cilantro, eat with rice.)

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So excited that I finally made beef chow fun at home!

Used a few recipes for reference to figure out the profile of the nyc-style version that I love.

The noodles were the hardest part, as expected - I found a packaged “fresh” version in Chinatown (because the real fresh noodle vendor is always closed by the time I get down there for dinner), followed instructions to loosen them up by blanching, and tip from a different recipe to cook them separately with the sauce to get some char on.

I have to say, this was really good. Can’t wait to tweak a few things (forgot onion, didn’t have bean sprouts) and try again with the real fresh noodles.

Sautéed yu choy on the side for veg, but it struck me that I was also one step away from pad see ew, which is exciting!

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Just cleaned out and scrubbed mine after 2.5 years away. I had already removed the fresh food but it was still … whoa.

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Leftover lamb shanks in braising sauce. I used to make a lot of roast leg of lamb but I never loved the reheated leftover meat; something about the flavor of leftover lamb fat turned me off. Which is weird because I love fat :slight_smile:

Anyway, no such problem with reheard shank.

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I like that!

Your dinner looks the perfect compliment to wine in a box. Salty! I do like the lime pickle also.

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Totally out of my comfort zone today, with some Indian dishes. Saag tofu (not paneer eaters) by Aarti Sequera and sweet&sour okra by Madhur Jaffrey. After yesterday’s Thai dinner, I’m sure my kid just wants some spaghetti and meatballs. I’m stretching his edges, as they say.

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Last night I made a spicy pork and rice noodle bowl. It was delicious however next time I would make a couple of modifications. Only one mistake but I am to blame - I haven’t cooked with ground pork in awhile and I have forgotten how lean it is so browning it in a non stick skillet with no oil rendered it a little on the dry side. Next time I will brown it in a little oil as the recipe suggests. The sauce for the rice noodles was fine but could have used more umami so next time I will add a little sesame oil, ginger, and garlic.

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Sodha only calls for cinnamon stick, cumin seeds, turmeric, and garam masala. It was fine but I just think kindney beans taste kind of stodgey and bland. Almost identical treatment for daal tastes so much better to me!

So relate to this! I was a little shocked mine ate naan with mashed kidney beans and melted cheese last night.

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Did you dislike the beans in general, or the recipe?

If it’s the latter, maybe another recipe or tweaking the current recipe more to your liking might help?

If the former, a similar treatment for other beans might help. Lobhia (black eyed peas) are another good choice.

I personally love both those beans but I just make my own.

To be fair, I tease about mine, but they’re pretty open for kids. Especially the younger one. I cook a lot of things that some might consider exotic. So when he wasn’t too thrilled with the 2 Indian dishes yesterday, he compensated by nuking a frozen char sui steamed bun. No pb&j kids here… :slight_smile: I think he was just a little tired because I’d been challenging him with flavor profiles day after day recently.

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I really like the rajma recipe from Thail (Maunika Gowardhan)

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Last night was a very simple wrap meal. I made the flatbread and then filled half with steak and the other half with chicken. Both had sautéed onions and romano pepper inside. I then fried them a bit after rolling and served it with a fresh salad of tomatoes, cucumber, onion and coriander.

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Maybe not apropos to your recipe, but one trick I found for browning lean cuts of meat (either pork or beef, as I use 93/7 ground beef), is to brown it with some sliced up Cremini or Shiitake mushrooms.

You can still use non-stick cookware and no oil, and avoid the “jerky” effect of browning lean cuts of meat. Plus it adds additional umami. Win, win!

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That’s brilliant! Actually I have recently been buying dried mushrooms at the Chinese grocery store to have on hand in a pinch. If I add rehydrated mushrooms to that dish I could use the soaking liquid to the pan to prevent the pork from drying out.

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Taking advantage of my wife’s absence, I decided to cook one of my favourite, full of 'wok-hay ', delicious but simple, one dish meal - Hong Kong Cafe style ‘stirred fry sliced beef with tomatoes and aromatics on rice’.
Sooooo good!! Those gorgeous caramelized beef provide a nice affirmation!
BTW, fragrance from my nightly blooming Corn Plant masks the smokey odour brilliantly!

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