We enjoyed another outstanding dinner with our friends at La Lupa in Manalapan, NJ including excellent New Zealand lamb; homemade foccacia; crispy juicy hot honey fried chicken; short ribs; halibut; crispy cacio e pepe potatoes; chocolate peanut butter brownies; citrus olive oil cake. It all went great with an excellent red blend, cabernet, and malbec.
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I spent yesterday and this morning installing a new water pump. Working with my step son is like herding cats, but bless his heart we got 'er done. Celebrated this afternoon with gin, gin and lots of gin and a hot shower to ease my aching back.
WFD? Pork tenderloin with chimichurri, Hasselback potato with garlic, parsley butter. Little gem, tomato, green onion, blue cheese salad with ranch dressing. Did I say there was gin?
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Superbowl supper - Buffalo style chicken wings close to the real thing but not exactly. Served with some leftover Peruvian green sauce and bleu cheese dressing. We didn’t bother with the celery. Mr Bean made Chinese baked barbecue pork buns. The Sprout made Spam Musubi. Everything was good including the game.
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Shrimp and arroz con gandules. I had originally wanted to skewer the shrimp and grill them, but they were a lot smaller than I thought (freezer dive tonight-- the bag said “large” shrimp but they barely qualified as medium in my book) so I ended up just throwing them in with the rice as it finished cooking. Just as good. Side of tostones.
Worked until 8 and while not a football fan at all, caught the 3rd and 4th quarter while cooking. Pretty exciting stuff.
There was gin.
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Dinner tonight - Philly Cheesesteaks, NOT traditional but tasty. Used rib steak, provolone, few mushrooms. Saved half of mine for lunch tomorrow.
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Dinner Friday night - had a craving for Asian noodles, so yakisoba. Never thought to make it at home for some reason. Scratched that particular itch.
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I don’t know when or what I last posted, been busy working lot of overtime. but in between today i made Khao Man Gai - Thai chicken and rice. First I made chicken broth that simmered for a few hours, and then new chicken thighs simmered in the broth with slices of ginger, garlic, and salt. When that was done, i made the rice - first fried with shallots, ginger and garlic, and then cooked in more of the gingery chicken broth. Also made the fermented soy bean sauce that goes with. Served some of the rich broth on the side, which can be spooned over the rice and chicken or just sipped on its own. I love this dish, especially the rice, which gets a nice chewiness from the frying and the fatty, flavorful chicken broth. and even though i was traumatized as a kid by uncrispy chicken skin, I’ve really come to love chicken skin in all forms. This dish look may look rather plain but there’s so much garlic and ginger in each component that it’s actually a flavor bomb. The cukes on the side were simply tossed with salt, rice wine vinegar, and a little sesame oil.
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Sous-vide sichuan twice-cooked pork belly (sous-vide at 77C/170F for 9 hours with broad bean chili paste, finished with green peppers, garlic, ginger, chili, scallions and a sauce made from shaoxing rice wine, sous vide cooking liquid, hoisin sauce amd broad bean chili paste - overall very nice texture of the pork belly crisp on the outside, tender inside but still with a light chew - much better than braised or cooked). Served with stir-fried tatsoi with bamboo and ginger.
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Deconstructed nachos at the PGH hotel HH, followed by crispy but a little too bready calamari with little to no dipping sauce & “Spicy Señorita” roll (yellowtail, jalapeño, avocado) at one of our favorite bars. Well, it’s our favorite when it’s not a Saturday night and the music is turned up by 100 decibel every 10 minutes. Once we literally had to scream at each other at the high-top we called it a night and continued with scotch & Marc Maron’s latest standup in the hotel room.
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Yesterday I made roast cod, roast potatoes, and an orange parsley relish to go on top. It was very un-super bowl esque.
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But I bet it was good!
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It was ok. There was a bit too much orange rind in the relish, and the fish was less good than it could have been. Trader Joe’s frozen cod. I need to try harder to find a better source of fish. TJ’s cod tasted a little old/fishy.
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What is this? It looks delightful. I think I see kale, potatoes, sausage (?), tomato and cream or just broth and cream and a little orange from the sausage fat… Pls share. My kiddo says he wants something with kale.
I’m not a big fan of TJ’s meat, and I’ve never tried their fish. I have a WF and another local chain near me that have great meat and fish, and I’d rather spend a little extra money. There’s just two of us so it’s not like I have to buy a lot.
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I’ve never been a fan of the TJ frozen fish and seafood, but thought I’d try it again. I think their meat is ok. We have a WF too, and I’ll buy things on sale there. Otherwise, it gives me sticker shock.
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Same. Their frozen tuna is also lousy (dark/brownish and not very fresh tasting). Surprisingly, Aldi’s is way better.
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Used up the last of yesterday’s hot smoked trout in tacos (“a la vinagreta”) from Rick Bayless’s Mexican Everyday cookbook. Sometimes I think I could eat tacos everyday!
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I have always like so many things from TJ’s, but never their meat or frozen seafood, like others mentioned above. I do love their frozen Orange Chicken, Kung Pao Chicken, and hopefully the Chicken Tikka Masala I’m dyin to try.
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