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

Faith

The Sweeper wrote: »

Used one lot to make a Nyonya braised pork dish (Malaysian stew where pork is braised with a paste of shallots until golden, and then slowly cooked with cinnamon, star anise, cloves, water, dark soy sauce and vinegar - the sauce reduces to a flavoursome paste coating meat that's tender but not falling asunder).

That sounds delicious!

Caros

Battered squid with a sweet chili mayo and salad tonight.

The Sweeper

Faith wrote: »

That sounds delicious!

It is!

It's from James Oseland's Cradle of Flavour book (good book!).

Recipe in case you're interested, because it's dead easy:

Spice Braised Nyonya Pork

• 900g pork shoulder in 1.5@ cubes, most of the fat trimmed but not all
• Shallots, peeled and roughly chopped (because you're going to put them in a blender) - usable quantity about 285g
• Two whole star anise
• Two whole sticks of cinnamon, each about 10cm long
• Four cloves (I just put in half a teaspoon, life's too short to be counting cloves)
• A 3-inch piece of galangal, peeled and cut into matchsticks. (If you can't get galangal, use root ginger - it's not a direct substitute and the flavours are different, but the ginger makes for a nice final dish anyway)
• 250 mls water
• 3 tablespoons rice or cider vinegar (I used organic apple cider vinegar)
• 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce (this needs to be the really black stuff, not light soy)
• 2 tablespoons sugar (I used dark brown)

You put the shallots in a food processor with about 1tbsp of water and blend them to a paste.

Use about 2 tbsps of peanut oil in a deep pot (non-stick lends itself most kindly to these slow-cooking meals), and fry the galangal/ginger matchsticks until golden. Then add the shallot paste. Cook until the rawness is gone off the shallot paste, but don't allow it to brown. Pale gold is as far as it should go! If it starts to catch the flavour will colour the whole dish.

Once the shallots and galangal/ginger are done, add the star anise, cinnamon sticks and cloves to the pan and continue to cook until they've started to release their aromas.

Then add the raw pork, a few cubes at a time, and seal it. If you can get a braise on it without burning the shallots all the better (and alternatively you can cook it in a separate non-stick pan to get a really good braise finish on it before adding it, and every scrap of juice from the pan, into your pot with the spices).

Once all of the meat is braised in with the spices, add all the liquids together along with the sugar - you can mix the water, vinegar, soy and sugar in a single bowl in advance (and interestingly the vinegar will have done a good job of dissolving the sugar before you pour it all in the pot).

Bring the pot to a simmer and then turn the heat down - the aim is to cook this for the next two hours or so, never boiling but never allowing it to sit, because you want the liquid to reduce almost completely so you're left with pieces of tender pork, but not pieces that fall into mushy string, and the sauce will have reduced to this richly-flavoured paste that coats the meat. Similarly to Oseland's beef rendang recipe, this is one to keep a close eye on towards the end of cooking to ensure it doesn't burn, but that it does reduce nicely.

The flavour is really good, the meat is tender but not tasteless string, and the cut of meat is quite cheap - pork butt, or pork shoulder, isn't expensive and you can feed quite a few people. The piece I bought was a piece for roasting, boneless, with scored skin and a mesh wrap to hold it together. I unwrapped it and cut it up, and had about 1.8kgs of meat, enough to feed easily eight hungry people if I'd doubled my amounts for the recipe. The dish is very rich and satisfying.

The look of the final stew is very brown and may be unappetising, so it benefits from a splash of colour - slice a couple of red / green chilis and scatter over the top (to taste), and possibly some sliced spring onions. Don't add fresh coriander as a garnish, because it just won't suit the flavours of this dish.

Fajitas!

I had curried goat at a friend of a friends house on Saturday night. It was served with rice & fried plantain, as well as roast bananas.

It was absolutely amazing, going to have to try get a recipe. If anyone here has one, I'd love to hear it!

Minder

Another asian inspired dinner. Mung bean noodle salad with mango and poached chicken. Prawn salad with mango and chilli. Panko breadcrumbed crab claws with ponzu mayo; and crispy chicken strips with sweet chilli sauce.

Jack B. Badd

Beef tacos with home-made refried beans

The Sweeper

Jack B. Badd wrote: »

Beef tacos with home-made refried beans

Ree-sype please!

trackguy

Baby Back Ribs with Kansas City BBQ sauce. Made the sauce myself - it turned out really well!

I wanted to use my smoker to do the ribs but the weather was not cooperating. Roasted them instead. Put a seasoning rub on them beforehand with paprika, cumin, cayenne, pepper, brown sugar and garlic salt. Cooked at about 150deg in the oven for 2 hours. Took them out and basted them with the sauce. Increased heat to 190 and cooked for another hour, basted them again with the sauce with about half an hour left.

Jack B. Badd

The Sweeper wrote: »

Ree-sype please!

Refried beans were made using the Wahaca recipe - http://blog.wahaca.co.uk/2009/08/frijoles-recipe/
Beans take 2-3 hour to cook beforehand - simmer in water with an onion quartered, bay leaves, coriander & crushed garlic cloves.

Tacos were a pretty rough 'n' ready affair - beef mince cooked with chilli & chopped tomatoes, sweetcorn, tomato salsa & grated cheese.

kenco

Got a nice leg of lamb reduced but always a bit too much for us so decided to butterfly it (googled how to) and albeit with a little wastage it worked out well. Cut an froze a few 'steaks' and then seasoned the rest in a mix of herbs, lime juice and extra virgin olive oil. Wrapped it in cling film and bunged it in the fridge for a few hours.....

Roasted it with some spuds and served with buttered and mint peas

Seriously good if I say so myself!

Caros

Himself made dinner this evening, shepherd's pie. Really good with this weather!

Honey-ec

Chorizo & asparagus risotto and garlic bread. God, I love risotto.

dudara

We cooked a version of Simon Hopkinson's Baked Pappardelle with Porcini and Pancetta. It's a very adult and rich pasta bake, but very tasty and warm on a cold-ish evening.

Blog post

Vodkat

Chilli beef and greens stirfry!

trackguy

Tonight we had fish goujons. Had some plaice and gurnard fillets in the freezer which I needed to use. Used panko crumbs for the coating. Had a dipping sauce of creme fraiche with the zest and juice of a lemon added.

Gavin "shels"

They look lovely, did you cook them in the oven and also did you dip them into egg so the breadcumbs stuck?

trackguy

Gavin shels wrote: »

They look lovely, did you cook them in the oven and also did you dip them into egg so the breadcumbs stuck?

Did the flour-egg-breadcrumb thing then fried them for 2 minutes on each side on a medium heat in about a 1cm of oil. Invest in some panko breadcrumbs - they are incomparable.

the beer revolu

Chickpea and vegetable (butternut squash,carrot, potato and apricot) curry with red cargo rice and spinach from the garden (leaf beat actually).
Damn fine curry!

_feedback_

Made my monster pie again this week. It was way too big for me. I usually end up with big portions for things like this, as the OH is a veggie. I suppose a smaller dish is the answer! Tasty though.

Caros

Had seafood linguine last night with cockles, mussels, squid and prawns. Delish!

Honey-ec

Bacon, caramelised onion & sage quiche, with another salad out of the garden.

Caros

5 spice chicken with roast plums, saute potatoes and brocolli.

trackguy

Got treated by my girlfriend last night. Bruschetta for starters...



And croquettas filled with a ham and mushroom bechamel (inspired by a recent trip to San Sebastian), spicy meatballs and fine beans with a tomato sauce.



Forgot to take a picture of the creme catalana for dessert!

Minder

Thai style roast poussins. I made a sauce of garlic, a little ginger and thai red curry paste, a tin of chopped tomatoes, some coconut milk, a dash or two of fish sauce, lime leaves and lime juice. Poured over poussins and roasted for an hour. Served with jasmine rice and steamed bok choi with nuoc cham.

Honey-ec

Chorizo & chickpea stew with garlic-rubbed ciabatta toasts.

trackguy

Five-spice Beef with soba noodles. Used sirlion steak from Ennis Butchers, which had been recommended to me. It was very, very nice!

the beer revolu

Last night we had poached periwinkles to start with white wine followed by lamb chops,BBQd rare, potato salad, salsa verde, mange touts and raw baby carrots.

Tonight will be McCarthy's Kanturk black pudding, salad leaves, potato salad and salsa verde.

smiles302

Last night we had Chorizo and Sweet Potato soup



Becoming slightly obsessed with all things Jamie Oliver.

Honey-ec

Last night - fajitas. They were excellent, but I really need to get some liquid smoke for the marinade.

Night before - homemade pizza



As an aside, is there any easy way to get the image location from a Facebook photo? I'd love to post some pics on this thread, but with the new(ish) way that FB displays photos, I can't seem to find the URL for the photos. Ta!

Toto Wolfcastle

Honey-ec wrote: »

As an aside, is there any easy way to get the image location from a Facebook photo? I'd love to post some pics on this thread, but with the new(ish) way that FB displays photos, I can't seem to find the URL for the photos. Ta!

Right click on the photo and open it in a new tab rather than opening it the usual way. That will bring you to the old way of viewing photos.