The 'Here's what I had for dinner last night' thread - Part I

mike65

Last night was smoked haddock omelette with baked beans.
Tonight breaded cod with steamed spuds and veg.

Mrs Fox

psycho-hope wrote: »

where did you get your ricer Faith, ive hd my eye on one for a while but dont know what kind to get

I got mine from that homeware store opposite the side entrance of Stephen's Green Shopping Centre and H&M.
One of the best kitchen investments. Makes the ultimate mash.:)

Getting there

Im trying to wean my mind off the notion that I NEED carbs at every mealtime.

So for dinner tonight I'm having a prawn stirfry with mushroom, savoy cabbage, peppers, red onion, bean sprouts flavoured with garlic, lime chilli, ginger and a tsp of fish sauce.

It smells delicious!

Minder

I made a fish soup last night. Method sounds unappetising, but the result was gorgeous. Sweated off some fennel and garlic, added crustaceans - bashed whole cleaned crabs and some prawn shells, tomato, white wine, pastis, fennel seed, saffron and the bones and heads of four gurnards. I added about 3 litres of water and two sachets of dashi powder (lifts the fish stock). After about an hour, the whole lot goes through a bar blender and a fine sieve. The result was a beautifully thick, glossy soup with a great flavour. Just needed a slug of brandy and a bit of salt. We had that with the gurnard fillets and some boiled spuds.

neuro-praxis

Last night we had babotie with salad and boiled rice.

neuro-praxis

Carbonara and garlic bread.

neuro-praxis

King prawn madras tonight...where are you guys?! I need January inspiration for food.

Caros

Had slow roasted pork belly with roast spuds, parsnips and onions, followed by home made cheesecake.

the beer revolu

Chick pea & butternut squash curry served with quinoa.

Much tastier that I had hoped.

The Sweeper

On a coconut milk binge at the moment. Go through these phases.

Few nights was a thai green curry - I like to use a good shop-bought paste, I try and find one where salt isn't too high up in the ingredients listing. As well as the paste and coconut milk, I'll also add fresh lime leaves, a couple of stalks of lemongrass bashed and tied in a knot, and fish sauce to season at the end - I find it really improves the overall flavour.

Just used chicken, and then carrots, celery and a red and a yellow capsicum cut into chunks for the veg.

Last night moved onto Laksa. Used a store-bought paste again, and chicken, but added a lot of liquid - two tins of coconut milk and another 400mls of water. Cooked the chicken, some carrots and some celery in the milk and water and paste. Seasoned with fish sauce.

Prepared rice noodles separately, then heaped drained rice noodles in the bottom of a bowl. On top of the rice noodles I put a handful of baby spinach and a handful of finely sliced spring onions. Then ladle the soup in to the bowl until everything is submerged (the heat of the soup cooks the spinach and wilts the spring onion. Then pile a handful of fresh beansprouts on top. Finish off with a squeeze of lime juice.

Big flavour punch dishes, as a result, for the last few days. I find laksa benefits from less coconut milk so next time I'd use only one tin of milk and up to 800mls of water for the volume of ingredients I was using, just because I prefer my laksa to be less creamy.

The one thing I DO want is a set of laksa bowls. It's too fiddly to eat it out of a bowl designed for a chinese noodle soup - need a big 23cm bowl that's about 9cm deep. That way you can get big spoonfuls of all veg and noodles and soup without risking overspill of the bowl sides. The problem with a deep, narrow bowl (e.g. the 17cm x 12cm type rice or noodle bowls) is that when you go to take a spoonful of food it's all too closely packed, makes a mess, won't come out of the bowl, and then you risk drinking all the soup liquid and being left to eat the remains of the laksa with a fork. BAD. VERY BAD. /nods in food OCD disapproval.

Minder

Last night we had a chicken mole, avocado and sweetcorn salsa and rice. Dessert was a caramel pear puree with a beetroot sorbet. The sorbet was a big surprise - beetroot has a wonderful sweetness and the flavour was lessened by the ice cold, but still delicious. A good substitute to icecream.

The Sweeper

Are you doing all these sorbets and ice creams in your new ice cream maker? How often do you use your ice cream maker? Do you find you run out of space in the freezer to store the things you make with your ice cream maker? Remind me what kind of ice cream maker you have? Why can't I stop saying ice cream maker?

Tell us about the ice cream maker!!

S.R.F.C.

Tonight was honey and mustard glazed ham with creamed spinach and some garlicky hasselback potatoes, twas lovely.

Getting there

S.R.F.C. wrote: »

some garlicky hasselback potatoes, twas lovely.

oooh can i have a recipe please? I tried making them before with sweet potatoes but ended up a mess. Must go back to normal potatoes to try and get it right!


LAst night I had a VERY garlicky (theme?) pasta dish with steak strips and broccolli and a blue cheese sauce. With homemade garlic bread and parmasan shavings. yummy. i love pasta.

S.R.F.C.

Getting there wrote: »

oooh can i have a recipe please? I tried making them before with sweet potatoes but ended up a mess. Must go back to normal potatoes to try and get it right!


LAst night I had a VERY garlicky (theme?) pasta dish with steak strips and broccolli and a blue cheese sauce. With homemade garlic bread and parmasan shavings. yummy. i love pasta.

Here's one Sparks posted a while back; http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=69731602&postcount=8

Some people use a trick of putting the spud in a wooden spoon so that when you cut down it won't cut all the way through, if you have a spoon/spud combo that will work then give that a go.

BTW your dinner sounds delish, can't go wrong with anything garlicky!

Caros

For the hasselback potatoes you could also try inserting a metal skewer through the potatoe a bit up from the bottom and cut through till you reach that to make the hasselbacks.

Minder

The Sweeper wrote: »

Are you doing all these sorbets and ice creams in your new ice cream maker? How often do you use your ice cream maker? Do you find you run out of space in the freezer to store the things you make with your ice cream maker? Remind me what kind of ice cream maker you have? Why can't I stop saying ice cream maker?

Tell us about the ice cream maker!!

Yes
Weekends
No
Gelato
Dunno

reallyrose

I made lasagna!

I used a can of cream of mushroom soup as the white sauce. I quite liked the kick of mushroom. I've never liked plain white sauce.

But I only had 4 sheets of lasagna so I had to improvise with pasta and hope for the best.

:pac: Much less exciting compared to what a lot of ye cook for dinner. I'm teaching myself to cook so I'm starting small. And easy.

neuro-praxis

reallyrose wrote: »

:pac: Much less exciting compared to what a lot of ye cook for dinner. I'm teaching myself to cook so I'm starting small. And easy.

Lasagna's a classic! I had it meself tonight. With chips. Now in a carb coma.

the beer revolu

Last night was chicken thighs roast with finely sliced onions, garlic and cherry tomatoes and a drop of white wine towards the end.
Served with fried polenta and tenderstem broccoli.

Nice change from all the vegie wholegrains I've been eating but still relatively healthy.

S.R.F.C.

Also had chicken thighs, browned them in the pan then roasted in some stock and wine at around 160 for an hour and a half maybe, they were perfect. Had them with a honey/soy/balsamic sauce, one of Neven's, some carrots, and as much as i dont like to have the same thing two nights in a row, the garlic hasselbacks, just because a family member was after them!

kylith

I'm trying to become queen of the leftovers these days, after realising just how much I throw out.

Last night I took leftover fish (mackerel that had been cooked with a lemon/ginger/soy sauce) and some left over rice and stuffed it into some squid, then tied the tops with thread and simmered for 60 minutes. Served with stir fried veg and noodles tossed with sesame oil and a little soy. Not the tastiest thing in the world, but not unpalatable, it didn't kill us, and I feel better about not chucking out the lovely mackerel.

Tonight it's left over roast chicken Korma.

Padraig Mor

the beer revolu wrote: »

Last night was chicken thighs roast with finely sliced onions, garlic and cherry tomatoes .

S.R.F.C. wrote: »

Also had chicken thighs, browned them in the pan !

Chicken thighs must be the 'in' thing - had them myself last night. Roasted with garlic, shallots and diced potatoes. Served with carrots roasted with apricot jam. Cheap - but delicious!

squeakyduck

This was my first attempt at stew and it didn't turn out half bad.



My only complaint is that it could have been thicker. How do ye guys thicken up stew, it might be a stupid question but I am such a basic cooker! :rolleyes:

ntlbell

squeakyduck wrote: »

This was my first attempt at stew and it didn't turn out half bad.



My only complaint is that it could have been thicker. How do ye guys thicken up stew, it might be a stupid question but I am such a basic cooker! :rolleyes:

bit of flour i'd say

Minder

squeakyduck wrote: »

How do ye guys thicken up stew, it might be a stupid question but I am such a basic cooker! :rolleyes:

Mash a few of those spuds with a little of the liquid from the stew and mix it back through the stew.

The Sweeper

Fried chicken with sweetcorn fritters last night. Finally got the fritters right - but apologies for the non-exact measurements; a coffee mug of flour, just over half that same mug of buttermilk, two eggs, a pinch of salt, a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda. Mix this to a smooth batter - it'll be quite thick. Then stir in a drained 400g can of sweetcorn kernels.

The secret with these is the thicker the batter the better.

Drop large spoons of batter onto a non-stick pan set to less than your highest heat, and cook on both sides until golden brown. Serve with sweet chili sauce.

neuro-praxis

Tasty, tasty meatballs.

Minder

Baked penne pasta with three cheeses. This is a stock meat free dish in our house. A stock tomato sauce with basil and garlic, cooked penne, a few cherry tomatoes and mozzerella with a lot of grated parmaesan and gruyere. Baked crunchy cheesey deliciousness.

reallyrose

I made chicken chilli tonight.
This one!

I followed the recipe almost to the letter. I didn't put any coriander in it because I HATE coriander. And I used a pale ale instead of beer, mostly because I picked up the wrong bottle by accident and put it in before I noticed my error. D'oh!
I don't think the ale did anything bad to the chilli, I'll have to make it again with the lager I originally meant to use.

It was delicious. Quite rich and *just* on the far side of the amount of spicy I like in my food. The hot sauce gave it a nice after-bite too.
My usual chilli is the mince+tomato+chilli powder waved at it from the other side of the room so making soemthing with an actual kick was a bit of a departure for me.
My boyfriend loved it and has gone off home with a doggy bag for his lunch tomorrow.

For a learning cook, I think this was a good recipe to try. I learned how to deglaze a pan and I learned that those brown bits in the pan are not meant to be cursed and ignored as a freakish error. And I learned how to saute!

*adds to little notebook*