meatn3
(equal opportunity eater in the NC Triangle)
262
My fish market had sheepshead! One of my favorites. Steamed potatoes until 3/4 cooked. Layered them in a casserole with thinly sliced onion, minced preserved lemon, s/p, thyme, olive oil. Placed fish seasoned with the same and baked. Spinach sauteed in bacon fat and sliced tomatoes on the side.
Leftovers became chowder tonight. Clam juice with the veg, cooked a bit then roughly smashed the potatoes. Not enough fish left so added a can of chopped clams, flaked sheepshead and cream. Garnished with crunchy fried onions from Ikea. Hit the spot on a chilly night.
Today has been all about Thanksgiving, but of course, we still had to eat. Threw a potato into the Breville oven, set for 90 minutes and then waited and waited and waited for tonight’s guests to arrive. Once they did, I could pull out the chicken to come to room temperature, and then the frying began. This was a strange chicken. It had small thighs, and wings, but huge breasts. One side was distinctly larger than the other. As Mr. SMT stated, it wasn’t because he was a pitcher. We picked up this chicken at farm that we buy the turkey. It is inferior to our normal chicken. And yet, it was fine.
Today I had made some cultured butter. A few days ago I made some sour cream,. OMG!!! This is the sour cream I remember. So good! No coating of the mouth. Damn was this good! I don’t eat sour cream, but this? I will eat till the end of time. Now that I know how good this sour cream is, I will make the sour cream coffee cake from Inside the Jewish Bakery. I might make dips. I might drench steamed potatoes in a sour cream-dill sauce. The hospital scale will be happy!
Served with a lightly dressed Boston lettuce salad. No pictures. I totally forgot that.
The sour cream sounds great @smtucker I’d love to hear your method.
Pad thai with cheater store bought sauce tonight- lots of added veggies and shrimp. These cats are killin me sleeping ON me when its chilly at night so I’m especially tired= easy dinner. Enzo will be 8 months old this week and he’s already over 10 pounds and not an ounce of fat, ChaCha is 13 pounds!
Tomorrow night will be leftover Czech gulas from last night- an especially good batch, the paprika I used was sooooooo good! I used tri tip since I have a freezer full. I’m making an extra batch if the pollo a la brasa marinade and sauces to stay here at the house since Thanksgiving dinner is elsewhere.
I bought the culture! Oh, and then followed the instructions. Now, I need to call them to determine if I have live cultures which can be used again, or if I need to use and buy another packet.
Salmon belly strips marinated in a sauce (tamari, sesame oil, ketcap manis, rice wine etc). Cooked under the grill until caramelised and sticky. I don’t teriyaki often enough.
Everyone is stuffed from: turkey, mashed potatoes, mashed squash (my sister forgot the maple syrup, and I think the ground ginger!), green beans with frizzled shallots (which my sister called “worms”) and/or toasted almonds, glazed carrots, homemade cranberry-orange relish, homemade gravy, homemade pumpkin pie and purchased blueberry pie. Both sister and I forgot the whipped cream and/or vanilla ice cream. S’ok. Didn’t need it.
Everyone has leftovers.
I’m home and in my comfy clothes.
Woof.
defrosted guisado de cerdo, with parboiled/fried potatoes that were tossed with olive oil, butter, granulated garlic, smoked paprika and salt was last night’s dinner. pickled beet and gorgonzola salad on the side.
also roasted two turkey thighs for our “thxgiving” dinner. i’m at my sister’s every day for the long weekend helping her with her dog boarding biz (busy time) and so she and i are having takeout chinese, but i made the thighs anyway, and left one home with the BF. rubbed with butter and Old Bay seasoning, a little lemon juice and pepper, under and over the skin, 40 minutes at 450. Also made the BF buttery mashed potatoes, and gravy with the drippings and homemade chicken feet stock. lots of ground pepper, which made it taste like Kentucky Fried Chicken gravy! in a good way. i have to say, i’m not a huge gravy fan, but it’s the best one i’ve ever made.
The turkey turned out fantastic - super juicy, flavorful. My sister and i started out with rose bubbly and conservas from Spain - mejillones escabeche (pickled mussels) and tacos (octopus). and a burger joint & pie place slice of pumpkin pie too.
now for the Chinese food! dim sum rather than sichuan, we decided this year, eaten over the stove avoiding the dogs who’ve already eaten.
A lot to be thankful for this year, especially my wonderful “family” in nyc. Fantastic meal and company! She requested one of my salads, this year was shredded brussel sprouts/thin fennel/radishes, toasted pumpkin seeds, endive, dried figs, fennel fronds and pomegranate seeds for garnish. A dijon vinegrette with lots of black pepper and champagne vinegrette
A great group from various cultures, we had russian potato salad, braised leeks in vinegrette with dijon, mashed sweet potatoes, roasted veggies with grapes, buttermilk biscuits, stuffing, spinach gratin, homemade lumpia (!), white rice (mostly for the four year old but the filipino girls went for rice over stuffing), cranberry chutney, the turkey and gravy… maybe i missed something! Dessert was a homemade cheesecake, homemade rugelach and tiramisu with strong coffee.
My photo was before the last few dishes were added to the table!
As a fantastic surprise one of the guests is a professional pianist and played for us without much prompting since she needed to rehearse for a sunday preformance coming up.
Came home full and happy!
(And then i talked to my family in CA to find out the dog got into the cooler in the garage over night and ruined my mom’s labor intensive turkey stock, the prepped mashed potatoes, extra stuffing and the gravy. Thankfully my sister is a vet and he didn’t have to go to the emergency clinic but he will have a grumpy tummy for a long while.
And my mom almost killed him.
Since that happened very early in the morning she sent dad to the store and then remade what she could… )
Minimalist Thanksgiving for one (well, two since I had to fight off a cat insistent on stealing turkey). I’m actually a turkey fan so focused on my favorite thing and made a load of turkey consumed with mushroom onion gravy and cranberry sauce. For leftovers, I’ll make other sides over the weekend which I prefer as I can spread out the enjoyment without having to pick and choose on the actual holiday. Appetizers included seared boiled eggs and smoked salmon. Frozen cinnamon apple yogurt for dessert. Late night leftovers - turkey with blue cheese, garlic sauce and bbq sauce wrapped in Siete tortillas.
Nice feasts. Must have been nice to be with the family.
Big plaice today, 1 kilo (a little over 2 pounds). Before scoring and roasting. The best part is the roe, 2 big sacks of it. The partner doesn’t like roe as much as I do so I got to eat it all.
