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

chiempi

Seared marinated turkey breast steaks (marinade something involving orange juice, soy sauce, brown sugar, ginger and whatever else crossed my palms), sundried tomato homefries (somehow the sundried tomato oil flavours them really strongly) and roast veggie oven-strings (I don't know what else to call them!) - root veggies julienned into long, thin strips, microwaved for a few minutes to soften them, tossed in sizzling oil with paprika and roasted.
Oh and Yorkshire puds. The oven was on anyway and there was a bag of Aunt Bessie's going begging. Of course, the kitchen was so hot after all this we had to eat outside...

The Sweeper

There was sod all left over from roast chicken, so I fell back on an old favourite.

A handful of al-dente fettucine, with some garlic paste and hot chili paste that have been fried for one minute in some olive oil, lots of black pepper, a tin of tuna and chopped fresh parsley. Stir the oil with the garlic and chili through the pasta, then stir in the tuna, then the pepper, finally the parsley. I'd usually add capers and black olives but it was late and I was too tired to care much.

(And the bloody cats misappropriated the first tin of tuna I opened. I opened it, covered the open tin with a piece of kitchen paper and turned my back. Eric, who was sitting on the bar stool watching me, pulled the kitchen paper towards himself. The can opener had weighted the other side of the paper so he managed to get the tin to come with the paper. He knocked everything off the counter. The tin landed on its side - still salvageable - until Frank tag-teamed me and smacked it with a paw to roll it down the hallway. By the time I'd finished cleaning up tuna brine from the tiles they'd had the tin and were nowhere to be found.)

krankykitty

A variation of this recipe for singapore noodles:

http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/singapore-stir-fried-noodles,791,RC.html

Wasn't bad, I didn't have prawns or spring onion so left them out. Could have done with a bit more of the curry powder than is mentioned in the recipe, and also a bit of chilli.

Minder

Buffalo wings, celery with blue cheese dip, french fries.

The Hill Billy

Beef kebabs with bulgur wheat & puy lentil salad.

feylya

Minesajackdaniels wrote: »

A handful of al-dente fettucine, with some garlic paste and hot chili paste that have been fried for one minute in some olive oil, lots of black pepper, a tin of tuna and chopped fresh parsley. Stir the oil with the garlic and chili through the pasta, then stir in the tuna, then the pepper, finally the parsley. I'd usually add capers and black olives but it was late and I was too tired to care much.

Tried a variation of this earlier. Bloody hell, it's nice.

tSubh Dearg

Last night tried chicken en croute things from our butcher. My other half thought they were tasty, I thought I can make better pastry.

Tonight we had grilled darnes of salmon with carrots and some Baltic loaf bread.

About to go and make very easy ice cream for tomorrow's dinner.

The Sweeper

The tuna pasta thing has long been a fallback favourite for me. It's a very satisfying meal, and not bad for you as quick foods go - though you can increase your nod at vegetables by including chopped sundried tomatoes in the mix. I add enormous handfuls of chopped fresh parsley too.

Last night's dinner was a medley from the freezer - pies, vegetable burgers and such like.

Tonight's beef stroganoff - I'd have made it last night but we had no butter and I was too tired to drive up the shops for butter.

Toto Wolfcastle

I had pasta with garlic, mushroom, peppers, cream and parmesan. The pasta was cooked and the mushrooms were in the pan before I realised that my parmesan had gone mouldy and there was no saving it! I had to walk to the shop in the sweltering heat to get some more!

gucci

chiempi wrote: »

sundried tomato homefries (somehow the sundried tomato oil flavours them really strongly)

So what do you do?mix sun dried tomato among your fries before you jam them in the oven? Sound interesting........

tSubh Dearg

So we had people over for dinner last night (*waves at Oscarbravo*) and I once again cooked the wild mushroom and parma ham brushetta, followed it with spiced roasted poussin that I served with a giant salad, roasted peppers and grilled courgette and some cous cous.

Dessert was homemade chocolate ice cream and coffee.

Kurumba

tSubh Dearg wrote: »

and I once again cooked the wild mushroom and parma ham brushetta,

I like the sound of this, how did you make it? Do you include goats cheese?

tSubh Dearg

It's really simple recipe.

Toast some bread and rub with garlic and drizzle with olive oil. Cook the mushrooms in the pan with olive oil and a knob of butter for about 3 mins. Then add some crushed or finely chopped garlic for another 3-4 mins.

Put onto the toast, add another drizzle of olive oil. Cover with a slice of parma ham.

Just remember that wild mushrooms shrink down even more than normal mushrooms in my experience. The original recipe says to use chanterelles but I use a mix of various wild mushrooms that I can get either in Fallan and Byrne or in my local supermarket.

I'm not sure that goat's cheese would work with it as I think the flavour would probably over power that of the mushrooms, where as the smokiness of the ham complements these flavours.

Just to add: The original of this recipe is in the River Cafe's seasonal cook book. It's got a green cover.

Kurumba

Sounds lovely, i'll be giving this a go.
I noticed that Lidl have an Italian week coming up soon (from the 25th I think) and they will be stocking Porcini mushrooms. I am dying to try these but haven't got my hands on any yet. €4.99 a bag if interested.

tSubh Dearg

The best thing about this recipe is that is minimal effort to make but it looks great especially when you have guests over.

Minder

Home made Peking Duck with pancakes. The pancakes were a very easy to make. Flour and boiling water mixed, kneaded and rolled into a log. Then cut into discs - each one is dipped in seasme oil on one side and pressed onto another disc. Rolled out until very thin and cooked in a dry pan. The oil in the sandwich allow the pancakes to be separated.

Eaten with the traditional accompaniments - shredded spring onion, cucumber batons and hoisin sauce, the pancakes are nothing like the little discs that the restaurants serve, they were larger, more robust and had a very satisfying chew. Will definitely be making these again.

Minder

Ramsay's spiced monkfisk with citrus vinaigrette from the F Word last week

The Sweeper

Lamb shank rogan josh from The Cinnamon Club cookbook. Very pleased with the flavours in the sauce - surprisingly so, almost. I hate cooking with lamb shanks though. I appreciate the concept - tender meat, sweetened by on-the-bone cooking, but I hate the fiddliness. Would be tempted to use trimmed chops on the bone instead. Had the rogan josh with boiled rice and plain daal.

I've cooked rogan josh before to a number of different recipes, including Madhur Jaffray's complex recipe, but I found the Cinnamon Club version to be very flavoursome. They have a few techniques that I might use in curry-making going forwards to improve textures and tastes. Hmmm...

tSubh Dearg

Last night we had chili and ginger marinated rack of lamb from our wonderful local butcher with homemade oven chips and a big salad.

The Sweeper

Thai green chicken curry with boiled rice. Threw it together after realising I'd taken some chicken thighs out of the freezer 36 hours previously and left them in the fridge to defrost.

I bought myself a rice cooker recently - a large 10-cup beast - that doubles as a two-tier steamer. I don't know if it's because I bought such a large one and I normally only cook three or four cups of rice at a time, but it's taken me an age to solve the alchemy that is getting decent rice out of it. Like most of these it has two settings - cook and keep warm. If I use the keep warm setting at all, I end up with baked rice.

To get good rice out of it, I add more than the recommended amout of water and when it finishes cooking, I switch it off at the socket but keep the lid on to keep it warm. That seems to be working. The baked rice thing - see when cooking rice in a saucepan, it was messier but there was never any waste. I'd cook double so tomorrow's dinner could be tonight's, microwaved. Using the rice cooker, if I end up with a bowl-shaped, stodgy mould of rice that's crispy on one side, it goes straight to the chickens.

Bloody technology...

PrettyInPunk

Minder wrote: »

Home made Peking Duck with pancakes. The pancakes were a very easy to make. Flour and boiling water mixed, kneaded and rolled into a log. Then cut into discs - each one is dipped in seasme oil on one side and pressed onto another disc. Rolled out until very thin and cooked in a dry pan. The oil in the sandwich allow the pancakes to be separated.

Eaten with the traditional accompaniments - shredded spring onion, cucumber batons and hoisin sauce, the pancakes are nothing like the little discs that the restaurants serve, they were larger, more robust and had a very satisfying chew. Will definitely be making these again.

that sounds unbelievable:eek:

Minder

Crab cakes, boiled potatoes, asparagus and samphire with a butter sauce.

xzanti

Scrambled Eggs on toast I was too tired to cook anything else... The previous night I had tiger prawns to start and Pollo Primavera alla Ravello in Clonsilla... Lovely food and really cheap

Minder

Osso Bucco with Risotto alla Milanese

tSubh Dearg

Made meatloaf last night. Came out okay, but it stuck to the tin when I was trying to tip it out. Tasted good even though it looked a bit mush like.

kenco

All a bit mad at the moment due to arrival of newborn a few days early.

Still doing what is possible.

Last night was some potato salad coverted into mash (not too bad) and strip steak with fried onions and pepper sauce. Junior 1 and 2 gave us a few mins to enjoy!

The Sweeper

Managed to start my 'more meat-free meals' tonight. We had a simple stew of aubergines, courgettes, onion and tomatoes, spiced up with a few teaspoons of basil pesto. That went with a cheese choux pastry ring. I also made some caramelised red onion, tomato and feta tartlets, which turned out nicely and were very simple. Threw together two drained cans of beans - one kidney, one flagelot. Finished up with a salad of baby spinach, tomato and mozarella.

That's five dishes in all, and while it took an hour start to finish to prepare and cook it, I think preparing a similar number of dishes in a meat-based meal would have taken longer. Am also happily satisfied, and not feeling like I'll be picking again in two hours.

r3nu4l

Last night was a simple enough stir-fry.

I cooked fillet steak, frying it with onions first before adding green and orange bell peppers and some mixed frozen veg (turns out I didn't have mushrooms and beansprouts after all!).

I then added a dollop (not a massive amount) of HP sauce towards the end and stirred it all up.

I used boiled white rice and didn't colour it with turmeric, as I sometimes do.

I'd never done the HP sauce thing before, it was spur of the moment, I was going to add sugar but figured the sauce has sugar anyway so dumped it in. Worked out well!

Minder

We also had a veggie meal last night. Salad of Jersey Royal potatoes, asparagus, spinach & rocket leaves, tomatoes and olives. Dressed it with soy and vinegar. I also made a puff pastry slice with blue cheese, roast tomatoes and rocket. Pastry dishes are a great way of making a veggie meal that doesn't feel like there is a gap where the meat used to go.

The Sweeper

French onion soup last night, with cheese on toast, essentially. (Mature cheddar melted onto slices of french stick and seasoned with black pepper and a dash of worcestershireercestshirerereeer sauce.)