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

Seaneh

Last night (thurday) I had one of the most disappointing meal experiences of my life.
I was in Dublin for an appointment and got back to the city at about 6 so decided to have dinner there before catching a bus back to Galway.
Walking from O'Connell bridge I'd decided Crack Bird would be perfect so crossed the river and took a shortcut through Temple Bar, while walking across the square I saw the sing for the early bird offer for Frankies. 2 Courses for €15, options including Buffalo Wings and a Burger so decided, feck it, Marco Peirre White is a hero of mine, have eaten in a few of his places over the years I'd come to expect a certain standard from the food.

I will start by saying, Frankies isn't hugh dining, and I wasn't expecting as much, but isn't not exactly cheap either.
Portion sizes were pretty generous too, so no complaints there and €15 isn't bad value for two courses in Dublin.

That is where the positives end.

The wings were extremely greases and the sauce was extremely lacking in falavour and heat. I am a hot wing nut, I love them and honestly, these were the worst I have ever had!

Then came the burger. Nicely presented on a floured bap and a generous portion of house fries (which were pretty good chips!) however the taste did not match the look.

The bun was verging on stale, exteremely dry and sould have done with being grilled atleast to hide the fact that it was day old bread.

The burger itself was over cooked and looked like it came out of a Big Al's box from the frezer.
There is no doubt in my mind that it was a pre-formed frozen burger.
I was really disappointed.

Like I said, Marco is a hero of mine, one of the greatest Chefs of the last 20 years and jointly responsible (alone with the likes of the Roux Brothers el al) for dragging British food from the ****e it was 30-40 years ago.

That said, Frankies is piss poor and I will not set foot in the place again.
I am horribly disappointed that Marco would lend his name to such ****e feel like doing so tricks people into expecting a level of food that is sorely lacking.

Waste of €15 and I wish I'd carried on the extra 300 yards to Crack Bird and got the buttermilk chicken!

Martyn1989

Birthday BBQ last night, I had Jamaican Jerk Pork, Piri Piri Wings, cremated steak (:o thats how the others like it, its already been nibbled in the pic aswell), homemade chips and pak choi stirfried in oil and garlic. All washed down with Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.

hardCopy

Had homemade turkey burger last night. Used it as a chance to try out my new food processor.

<pic snipped>

Finally got some solid tofu and made tofu matar for lunch today. Pretty good but not sure I like tofu, much nicer with haloumi cheese.

the beer revolu

Fried/grilled chicken thighs, Thai fragrant rice, salad, jus. Nice:D

LaChatteGitane

My first ever attempt at cooking, or eating even, spicy chicken wings. I improvised and they were yumyumyum.

Danii86

Just a scrummy dinner of rib eye steak served with cumin spiced sweet potato wedges and a heap of salad with a lime vinegarette

http://instagr.am/p/Mgg1hDiyHe/

the beer revolu

Had some friends around yesterday so I wasn't punctuating dinner with taking photos - wasn't such a pretty dinner anyway.

Started with (for some unknown reason) aperitifs of good reposado Tequila and sangarita (spicy tomato and orange juice). Had some garlic rubbed toasted bread with rocket and herb pesto and some spread with bone marrow and sea salt to go with the aperitif.

Followed this with bowls of clear, rich broth with parsley and pearl barley (broth was from the cooking of the main course).

Main was a variation of Pot au Feu - the variation being that I used several different meats rather than just beef (beef shin rings on the bone, free range belly pork, smoked ham hock, lamb tongues). A big pot of boiled meat and veg isn't everybody's cup of tea but I chose my guests wisely!

No dessert - just an Irish cheese board (actually, one English cheese in there:eek:) with 20 YO Tawney port.

Coffee/tea chcoolate.

There may well have been some beer sampled after the port!;)

the beer revolu

LaChatteGitane wrote: »

My first ever attempt at cooking, or eating even, spicy chicken wings. I improvised and they were yumyumyum.

Do tell!

Merkin

We didn't have this for dinner last night but I've just made it for dessert as this is one of my Spécialités de la Maison and not only is it simple to make but absolutely deliciously moreish! Everyone who comes for supper wants the recipe. This makes enough for 8 decent portions so adapt as necessary!!

Lemon cheesecake:

Ingredients

For the biscuit base: Half a packet (or one full small packet) of Digestives
75g of butter (preferably Kerrygold)
1 tablespoon of honey

For the cheesecake:
750g of marscapone (Tesco sell them in 250g pots so very handy)
3 lemons (juice and zest) – I try to get unwaxed lemons as theywork best
200-250g of caster sugar depending on how sweet your tooth is!

Method:
1. Crush the biscuits and tipthem into the melted butter and honey and stir until well combined. Then add a spoon of caster sugar to this as well. You know it’s ready when it has the consistency of wet sand.
2. Tip the mixture into the bottom of the cake tin. Using the back of a spoon or a flat bottomed glass,gently push the crumbs from the centre outward, until smooth and level. This will form the base of the cheesecake. Chill in the fridge while making the filling.
3. For the filling, mix the mascarpone cheese, lemon juice and zest and caster sugar together in a bowl until well combined. Do not mix the mixture too much as this will cause it to split. Taste the mixture and add more sugar, to taste.
4. Spoon the mixture into the tinon top of the chilled biscuit mixture and chill in the fridge for at least 3-4hours.
5. When ready to serve, simply push the base of the sprung cake tin upwards.

This can then be decorated with berries or a nice raspberry coulis.

Enjoy!!

xxxkarenxxx

Roast pork, potato and chorizo hash, roast veg and gravy. Delish

Reindeer

I made a Reuben.

Martyn1989

LaChatteGitane wrote: »

My first ever attempt at cooking, or eating even, spicy chicken wings. I improvised and they were yumyumyum.

Yeh spill the beans on your improvisation, they're some of the finest looking wings I've seen and I do love my wings.

Ophiopogon

Reindeer wrote: »

I made a Reuben.

Oh dear god, nyom!!!

Don't think I could eat for a few days after something like that but still would love to try it.

Recipe please??

Reindeer

Ophiopogon wrote: »

Oh dear god, nyom!!!

Don't think I could eat for a few days after something like that but still would love to try it.

Recipe please??

I posted the recipe on the toasted sammy thread. It's purdy easy:

You need:

Too much pastrami
Too much sauerkraut
Too much butter(I also use stripey bacon grease if we have it for breakfast)
Too much cheese(pastrami is strong and so is the kraut, so the cheese is mostly for the texture and goo, so I use whatever I feel like, or whatver I have around. Traditionally it is mozz or provalone - the cheese in the image is aged Tillamook Kolby Jack cheese from Tillamook, Oregon).
And your favourite rye(I tend to use light jewish rye).
And salad/sammich dressing or thousand islands sauce. Sometimes I use sammich dressing with chopped pickles in it.

Put too much butter in 3 frying pans, preferably ones that are too big. That's right _3_.

In a separate pan I quickly grill the sauerkraut(not too hot, it gets jumpy, maybe set it to 'stun') to mellow it a tad and give it some grilled flavour. Occasionally I add a touch of garlic powder for kick. Let it sit covered on the lowest setting while you prep the strami.

Set your other frying pan to wound, and give each side of pastrami a good scorching, I cover it with a lid if the pastrami is a bit lean. Then set it to stun(but don't let it cool too much at all before this step) - add pastrami, the sauerkraut, and heaps of cheese. Use a large pot lid to cover it. If you add to much cheese, you need to put a spritz of water on the frying pan so it steams up and melts the cheese fast before the pastrami gets too nuked. Please make sure to spritz the pastrami with the lid covering it so you don't poach yer eyeballs.

You use the 3rd frying pan to grill butter into the rye perfectly.

If you have a lot of guests, you want a very warm to hot plate set aside - rest the pastrami on it after you finish the scorching stage, cover it to keep the moisture and heat in. Take it off as you build the sandwiches so it's easier to time it.

I had one evening where we had a bunch of 3-4 day old pastrami in the fridge, and i wanted to use it before it got a bit too well-aged. So between me and 3 other guys and gals, we had 4 Reubens made with 3lbs of strami. That is where that photo is from.

I wanted to vomit, but in a good way.

LaChatteGitane

the beer revolu wrote: »

Do tell!

Martyn1989 wrote: »

Yeh spill the beans on your improvisation, they're some of the finest looking wings I've seen and I do love my wings.

Well... I really fancied some after reading the elephant and castle wings thread.
My problem, I live in Belgium and finding Frank's Hot Sauce is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Never have I tasted it before. I know that it is thicker than tabasco and the consistency (almost) of tomato ketchup.
I bought some obscure Mexican salsa (yeah, I know, it has ef all to do with spiicy wings). It didn't taste very exciting either so I added some normal ketchup, white vinegar, garlic powder, enough to give you a good kick cayenne powder, worcester sauce, butter. Heated it all through.

In the meantime I had the wings in the oven for about 30 to 40 minutes on 220°C after coating them with sunflour oil, salt and flour. They came out nice and crisp.
Tossed them around in the sauce, plated and the rest is history.

I have now found a Louisiana style hot sauce recipe here : http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/louisiana-style-hot-sauce.aspx
Thought about giving it a go once my chillies in the greenhouse are ready. Oth, I still have a good quantity of habaneros in my freezer that I grew a few years ago I could make a headstart with these.

Sorry if you where expecting great wonders or secrets from this improvised recipe.:o:D

Tar.Aldarion

I made: Garlic breaded mushrooms, veg & tofu spring rolls with sweet n sour sauce and egg fried rice. Tiramisu and a nice red cheap wine heh.





Never made most of it before so think it went well even though I was running around like a mad man. :-)

LadyHeart

Tar.Aldarion wrote: »

I made: Garlic breaded mushrooms, veg & tofu spring rolls with sweet n sour sauce and egg fried rice. Tiramisu and a nice red cheap wine

Would you have the recipe for mushrooms please? They look gorgeous!!!

hardCopy

Friday's turkey burgers again, this time resized:


On Saturday I made breaded goat's cheese with candied walnuts to start:


Then I tried the chicken and chorizo rice-bake from the Cooking Club:

Very nice, but I'd probably throw some peas or something in with it next time, and more chorizo. I used brown rice so it took longer to cook than the original recipe and a bit of extra water to cook up the rice.

Martyn1989

LaChatteGitane wrote: »

Well... I really fancied some after reading the elephant and castle wings thread.
My problem, I live in Belgium and finding Frank's Hot Sauce is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Never have I tasted it before. I know that it is thicker than tabasco and the consistency (almost) of tomato ketchup.
I bought some obscure Mexican salsa (yeah, I know, it has ef all to do with spiicy wings). It didn't taste very exciting either so I added some normal ketchup, white vinegar, garlic powder, enough to give you a good kick cayenne powder, worcester sauce, butter. Heated it all through.

In the meantime I had the wings in the oven for about 30 to 40 minutes on 220°C after coating them with sunflour oil, salt and flour. They came out nice and crisp.
Tossed them around in the sauce, plated and the rest is history.

I have now found a Louisiana style hot sauce recipe here : http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/louisiana-style-hot-sauce.aspx
Thought about giving it a go once my chillies in the greenhouse are ready. Oth, I still have a good quantity of habaneros in my freezer that I grew a few years ago I could make a headstart with these.

Sorry if you where expecting great wonders or secrets from this improvised recipe.:o:D

Its interesting though and certainly looks right, theres a recipe for a homemade tabasco on this thread: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?threadid=2056684179 which if reduced down could work well.
A quick look at a bottle of Franks say its just aged cayenne peppers, vinegar, water, salt and powdered garlic. It might be worth a try to just get a few fresh or dried cayennes or some of your homegrown ones, fry them off with some fresh garlic (all chopped), just about cover with 3 parts vinegar, 1 part water and season and allow to reduce for 20 mins. Then blend until smooth and you should have something similar to franks hot, mix it with butter and franks buffalo....

Tar.Aldarion

LadyHeart wrote: »

Would you have the recipe for mushrooms please? They look gorgeous!!!

Hey, yeah sure, thanks :-D

So I just removed the mushroom stalks and wiped them with a damp cloth, don't wash them they go spongy/slimy.


Mince up a few garlic cloves and fry them in butter(100g).

Got a bowl of flour(100g), a bowl of breadcrumbs(100g) and leave the butter/garlic to cool a bit in a bowl too.

Beat an egg and set aside also.

Now all you do is cover the mushroom in the garlic butter first (put some in where the stalk is to make it extra garlicy, in the hole. Then cover it in flour, then cover it in egg, then cover it in breadcrumbs. You basically just roll the mushrooms around in all the bowls.

The I heated oil in a pot and put them in for a few seconds each.

Very easy to make and realllly yummy.

LadyHeart

Tar.Aldarion wrote: »

LadyHeart wrote: »

Would you have the recipe for mushrooms please? They look gorgeous!!!

Hey, yeah sure, thanks :-D

So I just removed the mushroom stalks and wiped them with a damp cloth, don't wash them they go spongy/slimy.


Mince up a few garlic cloves and fry them in butter(100g).

Got a bowl of flour(100g), a bowl of breadcrumbs(100g) and leave the butter/garlic to cool a bit in a bowl too.

Beat an egg and set aside also.

Now all you do is cover the mushroom in the garlic butter first (put some in where the stalk is to make it extra garlicy, in the hole. Then cover it in flour, then cover it in egg, then cover it in breadcrumbs. You basically just roll the mushrooms around in all the bowls.

The I heated oil in a pot and put them in for a few seconds each.

Very easy to make and realllly yummy.

Thanks very much, am going to make them tonight can't wait now!

Tar.Aldarion

Can't wait to see them hehe

LaChatteGitane

Martyn1989 wrote: »

Its interesting though and certainly looks right, theres a recipe for a homemade tabasco on this thread: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?threadid=2056684179 which if reduced down could work well.
A quick look at a bottle of Franks say its just aged cayenne peppers, vinegar, water, salt and powdered garlic. It might be worth a try to just get a few fresh or dried cayennes or some of your homegrown ones, fry them off with some fresh garlic (all chopped), just about cover with 3 parts vinegar, 1 part water and season and allow to reduce for 20 mins. Then blend until smooth and you should have something similar to franks hot, mix it with butter and franks buffalo....

Thank you very much.
I think in the coming months I will have a play around with it.
I've made spicy tomato ketchup before, many times in fact and, I love the whole process of preserving, so it shouldn't be too difficult.
I will be on the lookout for the Frank's hot sauce as well, if only to know what flavours I'm striving for.

I must say, the added butter takes it to a whole other level, flavour wise, don't know how or why, but it tastes damn good.

GastroBoy

Had some pork mince, so I got a little creative. So the result was a cross between meat loaf and wellington. Nice though

Susie_Q

I had a really gorgeous chorizo and butter bean stew. Served it on a bed of peppery rocket. May have gone back for seconds.

mickgotsick

Roast stuffed pork tenderloin with a whiskey gravy

Martyn1989

LaChatteGitane wrote: »

Thank you very much.
I think in the coming months I will have a play around with it.
I've made spicy tomato ketchup before, many times in fact and, I love the whole process of preserving, so it shouldn't be too difficult.
I will be on the lookout for the Frank's hot sauce as well, if only to know what flavours I'm striving for.

I must say, the added butter takes it to a whole other level, flavour wise, don't know how or why, but it tastes damn good.

Yeh, theres nothing more satisfying then eating homecooked/homemade sauces, jams or anything for that matter.

Franks is easy enough to get online and its available in small (150ml approx) bottles so shipping wouldn't be extortionate and would serve that purpose perfectly. Franks is quite vinegary and quite mild, and while it is thicker then tabasco its not by much, unlike the majority of other USA hotsauces.

I plan on playing around with some hotsauce recipes to keep me supplied, their difficult to get here and I love having a selection to choose from (my fridge door is full of them ).

leahyl

mickgotsick wrote: »

Roast stuffed pork tenderloin with a whiskey gravy

Those roast spuds look so crispy and yummy - oh I'd love a few of those now:D

LaChatteGitane

Pasta carbonara with more twists than the sixties.


That's because I have to start inventing more and more courgette recipes.

LadyHeart

Tar.Aldarion wrote: »

Can't wait to see them hehe

The mushrooms went down a storm, really enjoyed them and so so easy! Had them with reggae reggae chicken and sweet potato mash with mango chutney and chilli.

Last night made the green chilli from the cooking club with naan from the freezer.

Had a brocolli and asparagus risotto for lunch today, had no wine to add to it tho but it was still yummy!!