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

kenco

Mental few days so sorry for rolling this into one....

Saturday
Picked up a couple of half duck joints from Tesco (huge but rightly figured its Duck). Roast them in some Hoi Sin sauce and served with sweet potato mash and lightly fried shredded cabbage and leeks.

Sunday
Slow roasted Lamb shoulder (little over done I think but still tasty). Served with creamy mash (inc sweet potato thanks for the tip all here!!). Used up the remaining cabbage and leek in a cream cheese, herb and white wine sauce

Monday
Copious amounts of wine with neighbours and no real food had apart from lunch (butternut squash soup) and the odd crisp and chunks of bread roll I got my hands on as the wine flowed (sensibly took leave at around 10pm) but did on my return have a toasted bagel with rocket and sliced boiled ham (earlier in the day) before bed (which I think saved me today)....

Roast rib (bone in) planned for tonight and then I think its back to stir frys for me for the rest of the week (though easier said than done!!)

A Happy and Prosperous 2013 to all here!

LaChatteGitane

Cravings for Raclette/gourmet for yonks. Finally we got to it and it dissapointed just a tad. Maybe coz OH is suffering a cold.

Faith

Last night, we had a roasted bone-in leg of lamb, done medium rare. Served it with roast potatoes, mashed potatoes, slow braised red cabbage with apples, and a rich red wine gravy. I didn't take a picture because I wasn't going to be able to do it justice with my phone!

Happy new year, everyone .

5unflower

The first dinner of the New Year was Pork Steak cut up into medallions, baked in a creamy sauce of leaks and carrots with some baby potatoes.



Happy New Year!

Danii86

New year new diet! Think i ate my body weight and then some in food over the last week!! So determined to shed a few of the extra lbs but not let it affect my cookin....sooooo, tonight was a thai style chicken stir fry with buckwheat noodles, deeeee-lish

leahyl

Danii86 wrote: »

New year new diet! Think i ate my body weight and then some in food over the last week!! So determined to shed a few of the extra lbs but not let it affect my cookin....sooooo, tonight was a thai style chicken stir fry with buckwheat noodles, deeeee-lish

Omg that looks lovely! I'm looking forward to getting back into a proper diet next week - was this simple to make? Where did you get the buckwheat noodles? Never tried them before!

Toast4532

Toast4532 wrote: »

Tonight I did chicken, bacon, mushrooms and penne in cream with some dried herbs (sage, parsley, basil) and some salt, pepper and garlic pureé. It is similar to a carbonara but without eggs and with chicken.

It was inspired by a creamy dish I recently had from an Italian restaurant.

I did a dish similar to this again tonight.

Tonight I used conchiglie, pancetta, chicken fillets, dried basil, red onion, single cream, mushrooms, frozen peas, pepper and salt.

I don't know why but I didn't like it tonight, it was just "meh".

Been in a funny mood all day, so that could be it too.

Danii86

leahyl wrote: »

Omg that looks lovely! I'm looking forward to getting back into a proper diet next week - was this simple to make? Where did you get the buckwheat noodles? Never tried them before!

It was really simple, used some thai seasoning i picked up in aldi few months ago,some ginger garlic lime juice to marinade the chicken then added some oyster sauce and rice vinegar towards the end for a bitta sauce.
The noodles came from the big chinise shop in dublin....by jer is street me thinks, my mum picked them up when she was up a few weeks ago, they were really nice!

Yitzhak Rabin

Lots of delicious steak and chicken. Rubbed with salt and spices before being bbq'd in this stone wood oven.









Just had it with a simple salad, bread and a chimmichurri sauce.

oscarBravo

Yitzhak Rabin wrote: »

...this stone wood oven.

WANT!!

tmc86

Happy New Year everyone!

Back to normality now after the break and back at home so I was able to get back cooking yesterday.

For dinner I made homemade pizza (was dying to try out a Jamie Oliver pizza stone I got for Christmas!)

Made a Marinara sauce which without blowing my own trumpet, was absolutely delicious which I think came down to a different canned tomato than I usually buy.



Sauce - red onion, garlic, 1 red chilli, 1 can cherry tomatoes, tomato puree, anchovy puree, rock salt, cracked pepper, sugar, thyme (Blended once it had been simmered)


I made a pizza dough too and topped with the marinara sauce, mozzerella, Red chilli and smoked spicy salami and pepper.



While the pizza dough was rising I also made a Banana bread. I added in some flaked almonds into the mix and then once I had poured into my tin I added a few on top with a generous sprinkling of cinnamon.



I really need to get a proper loaf tin as the one I used is more of a roasting tin!! Our rolling pin was also misplaced so I had to tackle the pizza by hand!

LaChatteGitane

Last night I overcooked the duck breast again. I know how to cook it perfectly, I just get on with other stuff and forget I have it on.
Never mind, it was still lovely and the skin crispy.
We had it with a 'salad' of green beans, feta, red onion and my christmas table decoration - pomegranates.
Made a dressing of grated garlic, grated stem ginger, lemon zest and juice, and sunflower oil.



Yep ! I ate it all !

5unflower

After the meaty excesses of the holiday period, it was time for a very simple veggie one-pot with some garlic bread.

xxxkarenxxx

New Years day dinner was roast rib of beef, yorkshire pudding, roast potato, roast carrot and parsnip and red wine gravy

Minder

Went to an oriental supermarket that I used to frequent when I worked locally. It's an hours drive now but worth it for the wet fish counter and live seafood tanks. Bought two huge brown crabs and cooked them this evening. I used half the meat for crab linguine. Very lovely with fresh sweet white and brown crab meat. More lovely crabbiness tomorrow.

Chronic Button

Had venison medium rare last night, with roast potatoes, broccoli and a mushroom and garlic sauce. I think a fruitier sauce would have been better with the gamey flavours but I didn't know where to begin and had limited energy!

Tonight we had taco beef with soft tortillas, 'salsamole' (a home-made salsa with a chopped avocado included), cheese, sour cream and a nice cold beer.

Must get into the habit of taking a picture of a good meal. :pac:

oscarBravo

Chronic Button wrote: »

I think a fruitier sauce would have been better with the gamey flavours but I didn't know where to begin...

Red wine reduction, maybe a splash of port, with a good dollop of redcurrant jelly.

Chronic Button

oscarBravo wrote: »

Red wine reduction, maybe a splash of port, with a good dollop of redcurrant jelly.

Thank you, I'll try that. I have red wine and port; I'll just need to pick up the jelly. Cheers.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Chronic Button wrote: »

Had venison medium rare last night, with roast potatoes, broccoli and a mushroom and garlic sauce. I think a fruitier sauce would have been better with the gamey flavours but I didn't know where to begin and had limited energy!

Blueberries go very well with venison. Blueberries, splash of orange juice, splash of sherry, reduce it down, bish bash bosh. Delicious.

gjc

Havent uploaded for a while, Im uploading two dinners the first one I had a few days ago, just a stir fry (onions poatoes, peppers, bacon)

The second was tonights dinner loaded potato skins (cheese, pancetta, sour cream and scallions) forgot to take picture until last minute only 3 left, familly milled them they were delish!!


Expert opnions needed, how do you know when to use sour cream or could creme fraiche be also used? The adults had sour cream and I gave the kids the creme fraiche as I thought they might enjoy more sweetness. But Ive always been a bit puzzled by the two. Is there a general rule that might help me. Ta

Danii86

Made a bit of a beef 'stew' last night and had it again today, it was sooo much nicer today!
Used beef sirloin, root veggies(carrot turnip and some butternut squash) tinned tomatoes and 2 tins of canelli(?) beans, seasoned the stew with cumin and paprika. Cooked it for about 2 hours on a lowish heat. The squash went into mush so thickened the sauce nicely and the beef was melt in the mouth. Served it with some crusty bread last night but tonight had it with cumin and corriander spiced couscous, the stew had matured really nicely and was absolutly devine tonight, was starving tho and forgot to take any pics 😔

LaChatteGitane

gjc wrote: »

Expert opnions needed, how do you know when to use sour cream or could creme fraiche be also used? The adults had sour cream and I gave the kids the creme fraiche as I thought they might enjoy more sweetness. But Ive always been a bit puzzled by the two. Is there a general rule that might help me. Ta

Crème fraîche is just the french word for sour cream. That's what they call sour cream in France anyhow.

Toast4532

Rack of Lamb and mashed spuds for us tonight.

homemadecider

Asian style gammon steaks served with egg fried rice. New recipe and it worked really well - though admittedly I was rather heavy-handed with the chilli. Twas hot hot hot!

Loopy

Tonight we had fish pie.
It was oozing fish..
Smoked coley, haddock, salmon, whale (only messin') prawns & a beautiful piece of tuna.
Demolished.

gjc

Loopy Im planning a fish pie myself tomorrow after seeing yours, just whats needed after too much turkey.:)

MissFlitworth

I wanted something indulgent for dinner but without harking back to the snout-in-the-trough-ery of the last couple of weeks so went for a striploin with a chunky sweetcorn salsa & green leaves (vegetables!! body doesn't know what has hit it)

Fried off some chorizo in a pan till crispy and then mixed it with sweetcorn, chopped cherry tomatoes, red onion, a little mature cheddar, lime juice olive oil & loads of coriander. Fried striploin in the chorizo fat till medium (although it looks more overcooked in the photo). Let the steak rest while I fried the fat off it till crispy. Then served the whole lot on a bed of baby mixed leaves. It looks a little insipid in the photo but it was quite tasty and not a 3-in-1 or family sized pizza to be seen!

tmc86

Tonight I had chicken goujons, roasted sweet potato and a tomato, red onion and rocket salad.

oscarBravo

LaChatteGitane wrote: »

Crème fraîche is just the french word for sour cream. That's what they call sour cream in France anyhow.

I think crème fraîche is a little sweeter than sour cream - you can't get crème fraîche here in the US (not in Walmart, anyway), and you can't generally get sour cream in France, but you can get both in Ireland, and they're subtly different.

We had bison burgers last night. I mixed bison mince with a seasoning mix we found in Tony's, the local (expensive!) craft butcher, grilled on the balcony in sub-freezing temperatures, and served with pepper jack slices on home-baked baps.

LaChatteGitane

oscarBravo wrote: »

I think crème fraîche is a little sweeter than sour cream - you can't get crème fraîche here in the US (not in Walmart, anyway), and you can't generally get sour cream in France, but you can get both in Ireland, and they're subtly different.

AFAIK crème fraîche is unpasteurised cream that has fermented somewhat and sour cream is pasteurised and has been artificialy soured.
So yes, there will be a difference in taste and consistency, albeit subtle.

In general though, I would say they are interchangeable in recipes.