What's For Dinner #106 - the Sneezles & Wheezles Season Edition - May 2024

[CCE (Keyrock the unfrozen caveman lawyer; your world frightens & confuses me)]

Here’s the whole fresh ham, about 18 pounds after I pulled off the hamhock and ate it (mentioned above).

Unfortunately, I overcooked it based on an ATK video that suggested 160°F. (Edit - in fairness, theirs was a smaller piece of meat).

It wasn’t until after that I found several others suggesting 145°F pull temp. It’s definitely over-done.

Oh well, live and learn. Definitely edible, but too-well done. Two days in a 5% salt (plus sugar, aromatics, others) brine followed by a couple of days sitting off the brine, didn’t seem to be overwhelming, by the way. The salt level is pretty nice (similar to a 1% dry brine), not like a ham brine level (most cured hams are about 2.5%).

Just overcooked. Next time (at $2.00 a pound, I will probably try it again), I’ll cook to the lower temp.

[MunchkinRedux]

Wagyu top sirloin on the Big Green Egg. Garden spinach and shallots, creamed. Grilled spuds with bacon bits and chopped scallions.

A bonus photo of DH’s pink peony.

[Mr_Happy]

Chicken salad melt

[ChristinaM (Hungry in Asheville, NC (still plenty to offer tourists post Hurricane))]

That was my lunch.

[ChristinaM (Hungry in Asheville, NC (still plenty to offer tourists post Hurricane))]

Maybe this is a dumb question, but could you not cook it to pull-able (195-205°F)? I bet it would be great with scallion ginger sauce wrapped in lettuce leaves (a la bo ssam) or dressed with a little BBQ sauce and cole slaw on a soft bun.

[innerharbors]

That’s my favorite sandwich right there.

[innerharbors]

Chicken picatta with turnip greens and mashed potatoes.

I’m sitting here after dinner eating the mashed potato leftovers out of the serving bowl and drinking a glass of Chardonnay, it’s been A WEEK.

[Saregama]

@THECHARLES made me do it.

Roasted bone marrow with toast and crispy onions. I thought I’d need some more food, but I guess it was very rich.

While I had the oven going, I roasted some chicken thighs too, for another day, and turned the skins into chips.

Also marinated and later cooked a couple more thighs for satay (inspired by the deliciousness of the satay I ate over the weekend at the Singapore-style hawker place).

And finally, all those bones went into the IP for soup stock.

Surprisingly productive after a long and tiring day.

[honkman]

One would expect that once a restaurant receives a Michelin star it gets well known and has a lot of publicity. But sometimes it seems even a Michelin star restaurant kind of still flies a bit under the radar. Here in San Francisco Ssal https://ssalsf.com/ is such an example. Run by a husband and wife team it delivers a great modern, fine dining interpretation of Korean food through a California lens. Overall great ambience in a small, simple but inviting space with outstanding service. Thoughtful and well executed dishes with interesting connections to Korea and family, including sesame oil made in very small amounts by the father of the chef or a live tank in the back for their signature dish. This restaurant deserves to be more widely known and it will be interesting to see how the menu evolves over the seasons.

Island Creek oyster, choujang, brown butter

Yukhoe, kaluga caviar, father’s sesame oil

American live eel, gamtae seaweed

Dry-aged sea bream, angelica, perilla oil

Dungeness crab juk, sea urchin, semogasari

Diver scallop, kimpo yaegu, fava beans, trout roe

Ssal x Arsicault bakery croissant, injeolmi, honey butter

Wild jeju galchi, gold queen III, maeuntang, firefly squid, crysanthemum, kimchi, cornichon

Wolfe ranch quail, red ginseng, bokbunja

Toasted sweet rice, albion strawberry, mugwort

Barley tea

Yuja chiboust, matcha cake

Nurunji date cracker, injeolmi chouquette

Leathered kumquat, omija pate de fruit

Market fruit

[CCE (Keyrock the unfrozen caveman lawyer; your world frightens & confuses me)]

I did think of trying that, but ham has only about 1/3 as much internal fat as pork shoulder (according to the goog, anyway).

I think it would have just continued to get dryer and dryer.

[linguafood (Natascha)]

Dinner tonight was a very low-key affair at Casa Lingua Berolina: a big-ass salad I’ve been craving for a while now, and with my favorite lettuce at that: mâche – which seems impossible to get anywhere back home, maters & cukes in a garlicky, creamy herb dressing, and pan-fried chicken breast strips with sliced oyster mushrooms fried up in a brand-new, non-stick pan I bought bc the pans in our pad may have at some point been non-stick, but currently they’re frankly just disgusting

Got a nice sear on it all, so now I have to figure out who gets to keep that pan until next summer - certainly not our current landlords.

[retrospek]

Interesting problem. And what about the new toaster??

[linguafood (Natascha)]

Here ya go: Would you cook with these pans?

As for the toaster… apparently it’s ok

[retrospek]

Ugh. Do you stay in the same place every year?

[linguafood (Natascha)]

No, we’ve stayed at a new place each year since 2002, with the exception of 2011-17 when we had an arrangement with a wonderful older British lady who used to vacay with her GFs in France for the summer.

Keeps things interesting, tho we seem to have been kinda “stuck” in the same hood for several years in a row now. We don’t mind it - it’s a favorite & we know it well, but we’d love to go back to other nabes for a change

[PedroPero (PETER)]

Treated myself to a beautiful, but very expensive, ribeye. P.E. I grass fed. Sizzled it up on the bbq, just S&P and some grilled/charred veggies. Got enough leftover for at least one more meal.
*can’t upload the sizzling video, too big

[Amandarama (Amanda)]

Salmon tacos!

[LindaWhit]

Left work early(ish), went and got starter herb, tomato, pepper, and lettuce plants along with some flowers for decoration at the nursery just around the corner from my complex. Will repot tomorrow.

Medium-rare cheddar cheeseburger, Utz ridged potato chips and a salad with lemon-tarragon vinaigrette was dinner. Easy-peasy.

Wine.

[Mr_Happy]

Butter chicken with rice, miso soup, and broccolini

[MunchkinRedux]

Lamb, spinach, bell pepper, and feta gozleme from Recipe Tin Eats. Served with a lemony yogurt-and-dill sauce, and garden greens in vinaigrette.

Since I was making only two servings (one-quarter recipe), I didn’t bother to break out the mixer and instead kneaded the dough briefly by hand. Worked out fine and t’was delicious.