What's for Dinner #90 - the Days are Lasting Longer Edition - February 2023

Murgh Malai, sweet & spicy Moroccan carrots. Blood orange, fennel, red onion over baby red butter lettuce, honey mustard dressing. Wine

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Dang! I had real photos this time. When I previewed the post the pix weren’t coming up so (I thought) I deleted the post. May try again.

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That looks really good! I’m going to look into that.

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BF made his favorite - Salisbury steak with mashed, and TJs baby cauli on the side. he used some very nice Spanish red I had for the gravy, and a packet of Snake River wagyu-style ground beef, just add a little fanciness. :stuck_out_tongue: it was delicious.

Salisbury steak cauli mashed

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My tamarind based sauce is tamarind (the block soaked in a little water and seeds strained), fish sauce, palm sugar, and a chili oil made from the roasted mash leftover from making fermented thai chili hot sauce.

Then I make the Night + Market sauce and use it maybe 3:2 with the tamarind sauce. And I prefer, like N+M, to add the chives/onions, sprouts, etc to the noodles a short time instead of having them raw on the side. Also, cook the egg at the end in the pan but separately (ie not coating the noodles).

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There was another thread on low sodium ideas that you might find of interest (oh wait, there have been a few: here, here, and here, maybe more!)

When I was cooking for a low/no salt family member a while back, we were advised to cut the salt entirely from any recipe, and salt only at the end.

So: no brining, marinating, or anything along those lines — they add more salt than one thinks, but you still have to season later anyway, so… (Apparently even for a normal salt eater that can cut sodium by half - something about how the palate experiences salt on top vs inside.)

Goes against everything we think is necessary to layer flavor, but perspective changes when health concerns are driving the bus.

Good luck to your FIL, and good on you for making an effort to make his food delicious!

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Thanks for the tips. I was surprised that my the 4 others all finished their skewers (plus) without any additional salt, and remarked that the seasonings and yogurt (plus the ~ half percent salt I did add) made additional salt unnecessary.

My son and I did salt ours a bit, especially the veggies which didn’t get much seasoning from the dabs of seasoning applied just before grilling.

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Thanks for moving this @LindaWhit !

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The only issue I had was with East Asian food, which was too bad because I otherwise cook a lot of it – soy sauce (even low-sodium), fish sauce, miso, doenjang, gochujang, Maggi: all salt bombs, and hard to get many flavors right without them.

For everything else, spices and aromatics can do a lot of the work.

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Tonight I made shrimp and grits with smoky collards, loosely based on this recipe. I added browned butter and sharp cheddar to the grits and more seasoning to everything, plus some Worcestershire, soy sauce, blackening seasoning and butter to the shrimp.

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I’m stunned – it’s on my list for my next visit!

Kimchi Jjigae (Kimchi tofu stew). 2 year old kimchi, anchovy kelp stock, gochujang, carnitas instead of pork belly, gochugaru, onions and scallions, silken tofu.

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Definitely soondubu weather!

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This could quite possibly be our dinner tonight - free snacks courtesy of UA. Our flight to EWR is delayed by over two hours due to weather conditions, leaving a window of approx. 20 min to catch our connection to Frankfurt. So much for a light, fresh, and ridic overpriced salad at EWR.

Anything there would be miles better than that economy class “chicken or pasta” garbage :face_with_symbols_over_mouth:

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Oh, WHITE cheddar cheetos. You’re pretty fancy.

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That was the only choice of Cheetos. I much prefer the day-glo orange ones. But hey - at least it’s the crunchy kind, not that puffy crap.

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Blasphemy. I love the puffy kind.

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More for both of us :kissing_closed_eyes:

The Sunday NYT magazine had a recipe for chicken with a gin and sage sauce. Mr Bean and The Sprout, both huge gin fans, requested it for dinner. I didn’t have any chicken breasts on hand but I do have plenty of fish in the freezer so I used black sea bass as a substitute. After browning the fish and frying the sage some chicken broth and the gin were slightly reduced to make a sauce. Served with smashed Parmesan Brussels sprouts.

Next time I’ll add more gin.

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