What's for Dinner #70 - The "Kickoff to the Summertime BBQ" Edition - June 2021

Did some stupid easy, real lazy, no think cooking last night. BUT the idea turned out to be fantastic due to serendipity and the magic of chemistry! Utilizing leftover skordila sauce, pepperoncini juice, and homegrown Greek oregano, which was slathered over BISO chicken thighs, resulted in pure magic. The pics don’t do it true justice. Great flavor and a shatteringly crispy crust. Asparagus to go with.


ETA: cooked on the grill.

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Tteokbokki with shrimp, fish balls, and cheese.

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BF found this recipe for “oven fried” chicken cutlets with honey garlic sauce. While I was skeptical on some of the steps in the recipe, the end result was absolutely amazing. Will need to make a double batch of sauce next time. We’re trying to cut back on fried food, and these cutlets came out so crispy and hearty that the frying was hardly missed.

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This looks AH-MAY-ZING!!!

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Plan for dinner tonight is spinach and mushroom crepes. I made the batter when I got up this morning so it can sit in the fridge and let the bubbles escape. Since I am a simple person grin the “whisk” was a fork.

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Sorry all - just started a new July thread here!

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Leftovers last night, because the time I was going to spend cooking went to cleaning up the disaster of grocery delivery - two glass bottles in a paper bag shatters, juice all over the other bags, the carpet, and my feet - oh yeah, and glass too. Sigh.

So, the last of the chow fun, ribs, and fried rice from the other night were eaten instead.

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Yes dear.

Wow! Your cheese delivery from Point Reyes looks fantastic. The packaging is wonderful, too.

I guess that frying pan with the sunnyside up egg will just have to wait for another time. :laughing:

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Thanks @LindaWhit! I have to think the starch from the potatoes in the skorthalia sauce greatly contributed to the crisping up of the chicken skin. Applying it to double cut lamb chops for tonight.

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:laughing: It’s holstered. The TomaTruffle is very^2 good. Thank you so much.

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Very excellent looking cheese score @Respectfully_Declined - envious! And paired with Veuve Cliquot, oh my! A perfect dinner…

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Congrats to you! My job went remote at Covidtime, but about a month into that, all the bosses agree it could be permanent remote. What a feeling! My commute was also icks. To the point where I had to keep a “work” apt because I couldn’t do the drive daily.

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I have tried the Patak simmer sauce for butter chicken and tikka masala and I just don’t like them at all. They taste so two dimensional to me compared to good takeout. I know @gcaggiano uses them too. How if at all do you guys tailor these? I wonder if I might like them tailored. They certainly are handy to have in the cupboard…

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I usually marinate the protein for several hours in a rub of curry powder, salt, garlic powder, onion powder, and maybe a little coriander. I then add butter and sometimes heavy cream to the sauce and always fresh cilantro. Sometimes more salt. It’s no restaurant quality but it works when pressed for time and we can’t make our own sauce.

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Thank you for sharing. I’m not cilantro’s biggest fan, but I can do the rest. Funny, my inclination when marinating protein/chicken for an Indian dish is to stick it in some herbed/spiced yogurt for a while…

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I have done that too! I even used to go the extra step of grilling the chicken before adding it to the simmer sauce (to mimic the tandoori oven in vain) but lately I’ve been lazy.

And if you don’t like Patak’s, there is another big brand out there that was WORSE. Wish I could remember the name. It was in a WFD post ages ago. Awful, awful, awful. Almost beyond repair.

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Thinking the other big brand may be Sharwood’s? If so, agree Patak’s is better. When I use Patak’s curry pastes, I typically balance at the end with extra fresh grated ginger, green cardamom and tamarind paste, until it tastes right to me. @Saregama may have some helpful advice!

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@Saregama will tell me to make it myself or order out, which is legit advice. Sometimes the jars are good, sometimes, not so much.
@gcaggiano yes I think that’s where I got the idea - from recipes on grilled Indian tandoor kabobs. Marinate in yogurt and garlic and spices, then grill. Tasty but definitely more work than sometimes we want to do!

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WF carries two newer bottled sauce brands that are better than the average - Masala Mama and Brooklyn Delhi. You can order directly from them too, though they may be stocked at other chains by now (they are nyc based so their test market was nyc WF)

I don’t love Maya Kaimal bottled sauces, but they make refrigerated “fresh” sauces which are better. We tried them from Costco (via Instacart) a couple of months ago.

Another cheat is to stock ready frozen from TJs or WFs and then add more meat to it - the sauce is just so much better.

And finally, if the bottle is all that’s available, something fresh will always wake it up - puree some aromatics and tomato and add that with some garam masala (or cardamom or nutmeg), finish with butter and cream/sour cream/cashew paste/milk.

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