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

Slight change of plans - I was pretty anxious about dealing with All The Things by myself, so I rebooked my flight for tomorrow instead, and my dear PIC is joining me <3

Dinner was panini on fabulous local sourdough/rye/wheat bread, a spread made with Duke’s, biber salçasi, and the last dredges of the roasted red pepper jar, rosemary ham, iceberg & havarti.

Nathan’s onion rings from Aldi in the air-fryer. I found the breading to be a little on the sweet side, so I probably won’t get them again. I did make a dipping sauce with habanero sriracha, Duke’s and garlic powder.

Real health food. Stuffed now and ready for dessert: Drunshambo Gunpowder martini :cocktail: I foresee an early night - it’s been an exhausting day.


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Quick and dirty eggplant Parmesan with sauced angel hair and garlicky wilted spinach. Hit the spot. Kiddo even had some bites of eggplant (I just called it “crispy cheesy”). Green salad with peppercorn ranch dressing.

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I would love to know specifics. I did find the referenced recipe on Food52.

The chops were dry brined yesterday afternoon, then my wife & realized it was her lady’s bible class night, so I pushed off to tonight. Also featured was coconut milk, pineapple rice, and steamed broccoli with a bit of salt and butter.

Everything turned out really nice - my wife in particular likes the brined “white” meat parts of the chops and I in particular REALLY like the more red meat parts of the chops.

And everyone likes the coconut pineapple rice, of course!

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Best of luck with the care of your mother my thoughts are with you. How nice your PIC is joining you.

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More leftover Peruvian chicken tacos with sweet potato oven fries. Tonight I remembered the avocado.

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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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