What's For Dinner #102 - the Out With the Old Edition - January 2024

Brilliant! I never thought of using miso to cook risotto.

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I’d say taste your miso before you decide proportion, because they can vary in strength. Start with 1:1, see how you like the flavor, and then adjust. I tend to go higher on miso because I like the flavor and also I’m using light miso.

Re noodles, you can thin it a bit, but it’s not a “sauce” – it just gets absorbed into the noodles as you toss them.

I’ll try and find a recipe that might be more illustrative.

ETA:
Here’s the simplest form, just miso and butter, with parmesan and nori to finish (both unnecessary imo, but create different dishes, as does adding garlic).

This one adds mushrooms, and miso butter mushrooms are delicious on their own, so they’re obviously great with pasta too!

Here’s a compound butter over steak.

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A relatively mellow day here, briefly interrupted by a quick shopping gig for my favorite client: a junior in college whose grandma on the west coast orders his groceries for him (!) roughly every other week, and who is very generous with her tips. And since the boy is from California, everything I do, write, or say is AWESOME :rofl: How cute is that!

The OG plan was a proper ladies night – last week’s gig doesn’t really count as I barely had time to catch up with everyone, but it looks like many of my homies are feeling lazy.

That can definitely not be said for the residents @casa lingua, who’ve been homebodies all week. And so, Ladies Night+ will include at least one interloper (my PIC), and possibly more.

The gay bar is featuring a fabulous looking ME menu this week, which has got to be better than last night’s meal. The stuffed eggplant in particular is calling my name, and maybe the beef kebabs. I also love the sound of the Layali Libani cocktail :heart_eyes:

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I made some Ecuadorian empanadas de verde with shrimp in adobo and they are amazing! Empanadas de verde are made with green plantains and they’re really some of the best fried empanadas. The plantain dough is a little flaky, crisp, and pillowy all at the same time and super easy to handle since any cracks are easily patched up. Truthfully I like them better than classic Dominican empanadas de catibia which are made from yuca for the simple reason that yuca cannot help but absorb a lot of grease, whereas plantain dough fries up pretty greaseless. The shrimp adobo is fantastic in these, but more typical cheese filling is also great.

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Those look scrumptious!

Do you they’d bake up okay? Or given that it’s a plantain outer, they really do need to be fried?

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I’ve never tried it, so I can’t say, but I don’t imagine they’d be good baked as I don’t think the dough would get that nice sort of fluffy softness inside that happens in the hot oil and the dough doesn’t have any fat so I feel it would be very dry in an oven. The dough is not sticky at all and I use a tortilla press to shape the empanadas (though a rolling pin is easy too). It’s got a similar consistency to corn masa, but drier.

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Seared pork tenderloin(a bit pink, but I’ll survive) on romaine/tomato/cucumber and red onion salad dressed with red wine vinaigrette.

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Hot damn, Perro. That is one bee-youtifull salad. I gotta get me some tenderloin again soon :star_struck:

Also, to me it looks perfect.

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Very cool. I learn so much here!

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My kiddo is sick (Flu) with low appetite, so I made my MIL’s cheeseburger soup with egg noodles and crispy onions to try to entice him. (He never doesn’t order a cheeseburger kid’s meal out :laughing:…I know that wasn’t proper grammar but it fits!). He humored me a bit and then wolfed down half a chocolate muffin. Because Sweets Hunger is totally separate. He’ll live :crossed_fingers:t2:

Ignore the blue paint, we desperately need to refinish this table.

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Thanks :slight_smile: It was on sale for $2.99 a pound so I grabbed 4 nice ones and portioned them for the freezer.

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Yeah. I was thinking I’d have to mix more fat into the dough. But some things just need to be fried :joy:

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Thank you so much!

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Can you share the recipe/source? I’m particularly interested in the dough - I love the flavor of tostones so I think these would be right up my alley!

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Hope the patient feels better soon and doesn’t give it to anyone else! :grinning:

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This particular version is from Gran Cocina Latina. Most recipes boil all the plantains, but Presilla has you hold a little back to grate raw, and I like how the dough comes together that way without the need for any fat or even eggs that I saw in one recipe. I also love the garlic she uses in the dough, which I don’t tend to see in other recipes.

I made half a batch of dough, which yields 10-12 empanadas depending on how big you make them.
For that I used:

2 lbs green plantains
1 medium garlic clove, smashed into paste
1/2 tsp distilled vinegar (lime juice if you have it, but I was out)

Peel 1.5 lbs plantains, scrape them, cut into chunks and place in enough water to cover with 1/2 tsp salt and cook until plantains are tender, about 20 minutes. Mash the plantains as soon as they’re ready. Keep the water around in case you need it for the dough.

Take the remaining plantain and peel and grate on the fine side of a box grater. Mix with the vinegar, the garlic, 1/2 tsp salt, and the mashed plantains. Presilla for some reason has you then put everything through a food mill. I actually put all the plantains through the food mill from the get-go rather than mash them, but typically no food mill is necessary and I actually want to try mixing this dough in the food processor to see how it works out.
Knead the plantains until they form a smooth and cohesive dough, about 3-5 minutes. If it seems dry you can add some of the water from the plantains.

Divide into 2-oz balls. You want to work with the dough while it’s still warm, for ease of handling, but if it seems to be drying out you can moisten with some of the warm plantain water. I place between sheets of wax paper and smash in my tortilla press, but a rolling pin can be used instead. Flatten to 4.5-5 inch rounds and if you want you can use a cutter to make neat edges, but I didn’t bother. Fill with heaping tablespoons of filling and press ends together you can indent for a decorative edge, but outside of a couple I also didn’t bother :joy: . Deep fry in 375° oil.

The filling is very simple and delicious. Plain cheese is very common, and I’ve seen pork and chicken fillings as well.

6 cloves garlic
1-1.5 tsp Merkén or 1 tsp hot smoked paprika (I used smoked sweet paprika and added some cayenne instead)
Salt to taste
3-4 scallions, whites and 3-4 inches of greens finely chopped
1/2 small onion (about 3 oz), finely chopped
Cilantro finely chopped
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
1/2 lb shrimp, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces

You mash the garlic and Merkén in a mortar and pestle and add the rest of the ingredients except the shrimp, mix well, then marinate the shrimp for 20 minutes in this adobo.

Then heat a little olive oil over medium heat in a skillet and cook the shrimp for 2-3 minutes. Adjust salt if necessary.

I opted to smash the onion and scallion whites into a paste as well for more flavor while reserving the cilantro and scallion greens for later. I also held back the vinegar because I prefer to not marinate seafood in acid except very briefly. I added the vinegar during the last five minutes of marinating before cooking. Once cooked, I added the cilantro and scallion greens off the heat.

I did not need to drain any of the juices, but she advises to do so if the filling seems excessively juicy. She mentions any juice can be used for sauces like flavored mayo.

Here’s a video of someone making them and their shrimp filling looks quite tasty as well:

Really they’re I think some of the easiest empanadas to make as the dough is super simple, very easy to handle (and you can handle it as much as you want), and fries with no mess whatsoever.

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Super simple tonight: BISO chicken breast drizzled with olive oil and Spicewalla’s Honey and Herb seasoning blend and roasted at 400° for about 40 minutes.

Steamed green beans tossed with butter, salt, and pepper and topped with toasted almonds.

Wine.

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Thanks - so it’s just florets and cooking spray? no other ingredients/seasoning?

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i’d be all over that peeg.

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