What's for dinner? #4 - Dec 2015 - The Solstice Countdown Edition

My first attempt at Ethiopian: beef zigni, gomen (braised collard greens), misir wot (red lentils), salad and injera. I did a quick ferment for the injera so it wasn’t all that great and I should have thinned it out more. Next time I’ll plan ahead and do a 5 day ferment. The house smelled amazing!

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Wow, props for making your own! Ethiopian is one cuisine I don’t particularly care about (mostly because of the injera – to this German-bred girl, it just doesn’t register as “proper” bread), but this is impressive!

Our Sichuan chow down was fab, as usual – one first time participant is now eager to join our happy group of chile heads :smile:

They brought the wrong fish dish (I had ordered the “wet” version in hot chile oil with veggies, instead they brought Sichuan-style fish covered in ground pork)… luckily, our pescatarian friends weren’t around this time!

Other dishes included smacked cukes, mapo tofu, garlic eggplant, chicken w/hot peppers, dry-fried green beans, bok choy, salt baked shrimp. We were positively stuffed afterwards.

Headed over to a local bar afterwards for a drink; sat in with a jazz duo for a few tunes… including a jazzy-snazzy rendition of ‘Winter Wonderland’. Fun times.

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Put smacked cukes & fried green beans in front of me and I’m a happy man. Oh, yes, and gong bao chicken. Mrs H is not a fan of gloopy Cantinese dishes but I’m having success with her and Sichuan.

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Pretty much everything this place serves is awesome. That’s why we return every week…

Just like in Chengdu/Sichuan (as seen in the piccies)! They all look almost like what I remember eating in Chengdu (Sichuan in general). Been there 3 times and still want to go back someday.

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Like LF, I’m also impressed even though I don’t eat Ethiopian.
Success with your next experiment.

My first test run. There are maitake, shiitake, samphire and octopus tentacles in the batter. Finished in the oven. We both liked it a lot. Korean style pancakes next time for sure.

Ran out of samphire after the first 2 pancakes

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My band was featured at a local radio station today for their “live @five” program. I hope it sounded good – no monitors or headphones in the studio, so it was impossible to tell.

A local restaurant brought over some chicken & andouille gumbo that was actually quite good, tho it could’ve used more heat (duh), and a mix drink with moonshine :slight_smile:

This was my breakfast. Ha.

As for WFD – it’s Friday: cheeborger club sammich / pitchers o’beer / tunes with my mates / nightcap at the CBDTR.

Happy weekend, y’all.

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Scrapple Sandwiches tonight!

My pre Christmas package came today :smiley:

5 loaves of homemade scrapple, 2 quarts of homemade applesauce, 2 jelly jars of peach preserves, 3 quarts of honey…and a partridge in a pear treeeee.

Just kidding about the last part :blush:

Have a nice weekend, friends!

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Lamb and polenta is such a winner! And I love that oven polenta.

Upcoming at Harters Hall…a classic roast dinner. There’s beef sirloin, roast spuds, steamed cabbage, carrot & swede and Yorkshire salad.

Mrs H is doing the modern day foraging and hopes the supermarket will have something for starter and dessert.

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A busy week with singing, Christmas parties, and so not a lot of cooking. Tonight will make up for this, I got a nice rack of lamb from the butcher which will have a herb and lemon crust over it, before roasting on a bed of potatoes. Lightly cooked Savoy cabbage to go with, and to follow… Ta da… First cranberries of the year made into a crumble with an oat topping.

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Deep fried pig ears with a citrus piri-piri glaze. Salad of arugula with soy-balsamic vinaigrette.

Cranberry crumble? Oh, yes, I fancy that.

Do you keep it quite sharp or add buckets of sugar?

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I’ll add a couple of sweet but unexciting eating apples I have lying around to the cranberries. With crumble I like to keep the fruit sharp but the topping quite sweet.

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Well fuck. Best laid plans just got cancelled, thanks to a sewage backup in the basement. Ah, the joys of homeownership.

So - no guests coming over, no grilled cheeborgers, no party. Guess we’ll be dining out somewhere…

Yuck. Sorry to hear this - hopefully cleanup isn’t too icky! And hopefully your “dining out” results in something tasty.

I was craving something peanutty, so a carrot, half an onion, half a red bell pepper, and a handful of sugar snap peas were sliced up/halved and roasted in a hot oven. Udon noodles were cooked, a Frankenchicken breast was thinly sliced and sauteed.

The veg was added to the chicken, and a thinned out version of my father’s saté sauce was added. Heated, plopped into a bowl, sprinkled with some peanuts, and eaten.

It’s the epitome of Harters’ brown gloop dinner, so no photo.

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Too kind, Ms W, too kind altogether.

There’s a similar dinner at Harters Hall. Pork fillet to be wok’d. A bag of supermarket stirfry veg to go in, and some pre-soaked noodles. Sauce is a “Chinese style” plum one that I made ages ago, froze in batches and then lost in the TARDIS that is our freezer. I say “Chinese style” as I made it to go with a western dish - duck I think - and is just a basic plum sauce enhanced with ginger, five spice powder and a splash of sriracha.

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