What's For Dinner #72 - Wait, Summer Is Almost Over? Edition - August 2021

BLT burger, Brandywine tomato from the garden. Herby potato salad with celery and onion, o&v dressing. More Lambrusco.

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Finally tried making one of my favorite dim sum dishes at home - steamed spare ribs with black beans. Used the bones and stubs from prepping pork chops with vietnamese marinade. Always a pleasant surprise when something tastes “right.”
(Thanks to @naf for recent inspiration.)

Baby spinach with garlic to accompany.

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Lunch was actually pretty good too - I made a beet stem galette with a bit of chive cream cheese and some gratuitous summer tomatoes on top.

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Almost had a fire today. Instead of turning my broth off, I turned another knob . ( There are 12 knobs for my range for 10 hot plate with 2 knobs for the planchas. I then went out to the garden to work. My son came to tell me that he is expecting 4 guests, can I make a blackberry pie? He told me I turned the wrong knob and had the long hot plate for cooking fish on low. On top was a 409 plastic multi surface spray bottle, and a glass container for peanut oil. The plastic bottle sprung a leak, the glass was still oK but was hot. If the glass had broken, there would be oil spilled and I would have a fire!!!
Anyway, his friends arrived and he hurriedly had a plate of my left over Singapore noodle. The friends all dipped in and loved it. So, I decide to make more. Good thing I did as he came home with 2 more new acquaintance he met at Solomon’s Island beach, No picture as they arrived at dusk and were hungry. They ares staying over till whatever time as now they are all in the pool. Here is a picture of the pie and chocolate loaf from the freezer.




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My mom wanted to cook for the BF and I tonight. She made two old family favorites: slow cooker cranberry Dijon encrusted pork tenderloin and stuffed mini peppers. She added something brand new in the form of Poutine, using cheese curds from Aldi. A delicious meal as a hurricane rolls in.

To drink: my usual Saturday night martini with Beefeater gin, mom had a Rob Roy, BF had a chocolate martini. There were seconds of all.

There may have been after-dinner drinks as well. I might have had a Sambuca, BF maybe had a black cherry White Claw, and mom may have been coaxed into a Jim Beam Honey. Maybe. :laughing: It’s a Saturday night after all! And a hurricane!

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love blistered shishito peppers… Only had a few of the green ones this year. Never had the red ones.

We enjoyed another outstanding dinner at Drew’s in Keyport, NJ. Below is a link to details and pictures for those that might be interested.

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We had a simple summer feast last night, in anticipation of Henri bringing torrential rains today.

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I reverse seared strip steaks on the grill. Remembered that I have a small tub of beef marrow butter in the freezer so the finished steaks got a dab of that. Luscious CSA corn and tomatoes were the sides.

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Yum to both!

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That tomato! :star_struck:

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We rented a car for the drive from Valencia to Castellón. Stopped along the way for a bite.


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So, I made a duck breast tonight, following your method to the ‘t.’ Except when I didn’t. I put the duck breast in the cold pan, thick, anodized aluminum, and put it on medium heat for 7 minutes. Then I turned it over for half a minute or so. I thought the skin should be a bit darker, so I gave it another minute and a half on the skin side. Put it in the oven in another container for 6 minutes, and cooked king oyster mushrooms in the pan with the duck fat. Very successful. Thanks.

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The storm that was supposed to be wasn’t.
I’m OK with that. I hope anyone in Henri’s path remains safe. More potential flooding on Monday with the last of the rain, so stay vigilant.

Dinner tonight was decided yesterday: Asparagus and Bacon Quiche with Monterey Jack and goat cheese, a combo of heavy cream and 1% milk, ground mustard, freshly grated nutmeg, dried tarragon and white pepper. I used a Pillsbury pie crust. Figured it wouldn’t come out clean from the deep dish, and it didn’t. Still tasted great.

Wine.

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:rofl: Very glad it worked out for you. The timing is dependent on the fat cap and the thickness of the duck breast. Sounds like the extra minute worked perfectly!

BLT- farmers market overflowing with tomatoes

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Mrs. P made clear spring rolls for the first time. They look a little messy but were delicious. They are very difficult to work with .They start off like a hard circular piece of plastic. You have to soak them in water, but if you soak them in water too long then they feel like saran wrap, and are are hard to manipulate. Maybe next time, she will just spray them with water instead of soaking them. They were stuffed with the same ingredients as the salad we had a couple of days ago (shrimp, avocado, bean sprouts, snow peas, among other ingredients). We dipped it in that same spicy delicious dressing from a couple of days ago (consisting of dried Sichuan peppers, jalapeños, chili peppers, garlic, galangal, lemongrass, and fish sauce, among other ingredients). We also had some leftover corn, bacon, and shrimp. It all went great with an outstanding Napa cabernet.




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Spatchcock! That’s “My Kitchen Rules” for chicken!

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Yay!

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Vietnamese grilled pork chop (marinated yesterday) was tonight’s dinner.

I realized belatedly that I have no vegetables that were appropriate sides, and even though the hurricane is just bad rain now, I wasn’t about to go out to rectify that.

To the rescue: a half-frozen bulb of fennel from before my trip (half of which I ate for lunch in panzanella-light). So I used that for a crunchy slaw dressed with nuoc mam, with some mint and grated carrot.

Sushi rice is still standing in for any sticky-ish rice requirements… (I’ll eventually get some Jasmine rice for these things, but I have too much sushi rice at the moment, might as well use it up.)

Pork chop was lovely, but the bbq char is always a missing flavor - I’m going to try broiling the other one when I reheat to see if I can get a bit more of that.

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You never have to apologize for fennel slaw!

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And pasta all’Amatriciana
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I am having a love-fest with guanciale!

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