What's For Dinner #66 - the Candle Lights in Chilly Nights Edition - February 2021

That third close-up pic looks heavenly!

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South Indian for most of us tonight.

I experimented with the idli/dosa batter this week, tweaking the proportions and the types lentils used.

Kids were extremely pleased because the dosas were much crisper than usual.

Idlis from the freezer, from last time’s batter.

I also made sprouted green moong with gravy, and dal in two forms - plain for the kids and a delicious concoction with onions, garlic, tomato, and my secret ingredient of the day, grated zucchini that melted in and added a layer of flavor.

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@Saregama, that all sounds wonderful.

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Thanks @Rooster! It was a good cooking day. Fed the freezer too, for an easy day next week.

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Smart lady!

Lemon chicken with orzo, oven bake.

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That looks great, and I have orzo. Details please :grin:

In an oven proof pot, place 4 pieces of chicken breast (boneless) sprinkled with s&p and brown golden in olive oil, move to plate. Add one sliced lemon to pan and toss in 2 T. butter/remaining pan oil til tender, remove to plate. Add one crushed garlic clove and one cup orzo to pan and toast a bit. Add 1/3 cup dry vermouth, 2.5 cups stock of choice and heat to low boil. Stir orzo. Return chicken and lemon to pot and place in 400 degree oven to bake uncovered 20-25 mins to absorb stock. Check oven at 15 min mark. I added dried dill and fresh chives on top.

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Thank you! Sounds good.

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Hope you enjoy it.

Looks good, that’s a lot of crepes, never enough!

We were very excited about the SE Hasselback potato gratin, but the potatoes were underdone! We ate what was on our plates but the rest have gone back into the oven for later. He sliced them super thin and they cooked for an hour, per the recipe, so I don’t know what the deal was. Also maybe could have used more cheese for me. Loved the thyme flavor in the cream.

I tried the Samin Nosrat method of buttermilk brining overnight but with a turkey thigh. The thigh turned out juicy and well-flavored, but turkey for me is a bit of a snooze usually, and very jazzed up (like in mole, for example). I even added smoked paprika to the buttermilk bath but it didn’t permeate, although the salt did. I still want to try this with a whole chicken.

Green salad with TJs BC turned out just fine. :smile:

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Baked potato with TPSTOB, crema, and chives, filet with bacon and Gorgonzola, creamed spinach.

Wine

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Mmmm! i want your dinner instead of mine tonight!

and i love TPSTO Chives!

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The recipe made 10 crepes; we polished off 4 tonight! It was nice and light.

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beautiful! i will try that with thighs very soon.

Haha your dinner looks delicious. I’ve tried making Hasselbeck potatoes before once (I think using the same recipe from SeriousEats) and it came out a little plain. I think I needed to use more cream and/or butter and/or cheese.

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i agree. And Hasselbacks themselves are always underwhelming!

Beef veg soup with israeli couscous. Using up 6 roasts I bought on sale at WF, a little at a time!

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All of that looks and sounds delicious!

Re hasseback gratin - when I saw that, my thought was “looks so pretty but I that’s not going to as good as ugly scalloped potatoes” :joy: - probably because I like my scalloped potatoes soft, creamy, starchy, mingled.

I’ve wondered about buttermilk brining - Samin or otherwise - why waste so much buttermilk? Wouldn’t the tenderizing happen even with just enough rubbed on, like for indian marinades that have a little yogurt for the same reason? Or like how dry brining works as well as wet? Just things I ponder when there are “wasted” ingredients that have to be dumped.

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