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

limnam

the beer revolu wrote: »

For once Mrs Beer and I remembered our wedding anniversary (well sort of - on Sunday she decided it was on Saturday and we had missed it as usual, on Monday I declared it was then but on further discussion and checking it turned out to be Tuesday - yesterday:D) Anyway, I decided to do a slightly special , meal in honour of sort of remembering it.

Pan fried medium rare Skeaghanore duck fillets with plum and star anise jus.
Potato rosti, garlic grilled tomatoes, asparagus, grilled aubergine.
Washed down with a very nice Langhe Nebbiolo.

mouth watering. Lucky woman.

B0jangles

Dónal wrote: »

I love pad thai, but have never made it myself - could you send me on the recipe if you get a chance?

I have a recipe I've used several times and am pretty happy with:

Pad Thai

Ingredients:

8 oz. Thai rice noodles (or enough for 2 people), (the flat wide sort)
1 to 1 1/2 cups chopped chicken breast or thigh
Marinade for Chicken: 1 tsp. cornstarch dissolved in 3 Tbsp. soy sauce
4 cloves garlic, minced
optional: 1-2 fresh red chilies, minced
3 cups fresh bean sprouts
3 green onions, sliced
1/2 cup fresh coriander/cilantro
1/3 cup crushed or roughly chopped lightly toasted peanuts (or other nuts, such as cashews)
1/4 cup chicken stock
vegetable oil for stir-frying, and wedges of lime
PAD THAI SAUCE:
3/4 Tbsp. tamarind paste dissolved in 1/4 cup warm water (look for tamarind at Asian/Chinese or Indian food stores)
2 Tbsp. fish sauce, + more to taste
1-3 tsp. chili sauce, or substitute 1/2 tsp. or more dried crushed chili or cayenne, to taste
3 Tbsp. brown sugar
1/8 tsp. ground white pepper

Preparation:

Fill a large bowl with hand hot water and put your noodles in. Leave them to soak til they are quite bendy but not totally soft.( it might take you a couple of goes to get them right
Make pad Thai sauce by combining the sauce ingredients together in a cup. Stir well to dissolve tamarind and brown sugar, and set aside. Note: this may seem like a lot of sugar, but you need it to balance out the sourness of the tamarind - this balance is what makes Pad Thai taste so amazing!
Place chicken slices in a small bowl. Stir together the marinade and pour over chicken. Stir well and set aside.
Warm up a wok or large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add 1-2 Tbsp. oil plus garlic and minced chili, if using. Stir-fry until fragrant (30 seconds).
Add marinated chicken. When wok/pan becomes dry, add a little chicken stock, 1-2 Tbsp. at a time, to keep the chicken frying nicely (5-7 minutes, until cooked is cooked).
Add the noodles, and pour the Pad Thai sauce over. Using two utensils, use a gentle "lift and turn" method to fry noodles (like tossing a salad). Stir-fry in this way 1-2 minutes. If you find your wok/frying pan too dry, push noodles aside and add a little more oil to the bottom of the pan.
Add the bean sprouts and and continue frying 1 more minute, or until noodles are cooked. Noodles are done to perfection when they are no longer "hard" or crunchy, but chewy-sticky wonderful! Taste-test for seasoning, adding more fish sauce until desired flavor is reached (I usually add 1 more Tbsp. fish sauce). Toss well to incorporate.
Lift noodles onto a serving plate. Top with generous amounts of fresh coriander, spring onion, and crushed/chopped nuts. Add fresh lime wedges to squeeze over each portion.

The only annoying thing is that different brands of tamarind paste/puree can have very different concentrations so again, you might have to tweak a bit to get it to taste perfect. With the brand I have (it's in a green tub/blue lid), I end up using about twice as much as this recipe says.

Also I leave out the cilantro because it tastes nasty to me

Seaneh

Early dinner tonight because I'm off to bed early and up at 5am tomorrow. I decided I wanted chilli. No idea why considering how gorgeous it is today but it was yummers. About 1 and a half lbs of mince, 2 heaped spoons of chili powder, 1 spoon each of cumin, paprika and cayenne, 3 jalapenos, 3 cloves of garlic, 2 medium sized onions, to small bell peppers roughly chopped, tomato paste, can of chopped tomatoes, drained can of kidney beans, a few tablespoons of water, salt and pepper to taste, a handful of tortilla chips crushed up to thicken it and about 60g of 85% cocoa solid lindt chocolate thrown in at the end for a little something extra. I know "real" texan style chilli doesn't have beans, but feck that, I like them and they bulk it out even more.

Served with a blob of soured cream on top.

Lingua Franca

B0jangles wrote: »

I have a recipe I've used several times and am pretty happy with:

The only annoying thing is that different brands of tamarind paste/puree can have very different concentrations so again, you might have to tweak a bit to get it to taste perfect. With the brand I have (it's in a green tub/blue lid), I end up using about twice as much as this recipe says.

Also I leave out the cilantro because it tastes nasty to me

I used your recipe tonight. Had a good strong tamarind paste so the concentration was right. I cut down on the fresh chillies to one deseeded because I was serving it to my children, gave it a very generous handful of cilantro because I love the stuff, and topped it with a tasty mix of toasted coconut and peanuts that I had handy. I also sliced in a little bit of quartered courgette on a mandolin.

It was amazing, tasty and fresh and spicy. It's going on the regular dinner rotation.

B0jangles

Lingua Franca wrote: »

I used your recipe tonight. Had a good strong tamarind paste so the concentration was right. I cut down on the fresh chillies to one deseeded because I was serving it to my children, gave it a very generous handful of cilantro because I love the stuff, and topped it with a tasty mix of toasted coconut and peanuts that I had handy. I also sliced in a little bit of quartered courgette on a mandolin.

It was amazing, tasty and fresh and spicy. It's going on the regular dinner rotation.

Awesome, glad it worked out well for you!

VanillaLime

'Shortcut sausage meatballs' from Nigellissima, made with the lovely Italian flavoured sausages from Bresnans butchers in Douglas Village shopping centre.
Easy and yum!

genuine leather

Home made sourdough/pre ferment bread grilled with thinly sliced chorizo, cheese and garlic chives.
On the side, pinched broad bean leaf tops and early purple sprouting brocoli lightly steamed, seasoned and a lil chunk of kerrygold.
Bellissimo:-)

fussyonion

Three butcher's sausages (90% pork), oven chips and beans. Kiddie dinner but you know what, really enjoyed it!

mike65

Nothing wrong with simple comfort food.

This should be the the Cake thread really but I'll be having a slice of this for afters later!

Apple and peaches tart.

homemadecider

Twas the big man's birthday so we had home cooked burgers, chips and salad. Portions were GIANT. I had it without the bread to fool myself into thinking it was a reasonable sized dinner We may have drank margaritas afterwards.

homemadecider

Lobster dinner in a restaurant last week - basically the waiter appeared with a MASSIVE iron cast dish full of rice and seafood. He fished out (sorry) all the lobster, prawns and langoustines and put them in a dish between us, then served us up individual bowls of rice, mussels, cockles and artichokes in stock. Holy crap it was amazing. Never had anything like it before. (Only 20 euro each as well!!)



The lobster was still in its shell and we were given great cracking devices to get it open and weasel out the meat. Bits of shell were flying everywhere but it was great fun!

Mrs Fox

Made oven 'fried' chicken tonight using this recipe, but I had marinated it earlier using honey-ec's cooking club entry. They turned out amazing.
Had them with mash, gravy and coleslaw.

The Hill Billy

I didn't fancy a full dinner last night so made a steak sandwich with fried onions & mushrooms, & melted jermi rauchkäse (similar to gouda). It was great with a big glass of Salice Salentino.

I also had quite a few rashers, sausages & white pudding from home (Swiss saussies are good - but you can't beat Kearns) that were due to go past their best today. I dug out a few spuds, an onion & some thyme & threw together a Coddle for tonight's dinner.

I checked it last night - it looks awful, but tastes fabulous - perfect!

Dizzyblonde

There were only to be 2 of us for dinner last night and then there were 6 so we had a roast chicken and 2 stuffed pork steaks with mash, cauliflower and broccoli, apple sauce and gravy. Rhubarb crumble with custard for dessert.

While I was at it I made meatballs and sauce for tonight so I'll only have to cook spaghetti later.

the beer revolu

Giant free range pork chops, fried polenta cake, sautéed potato cubes, carrots, spinach (leaf beet) from the garden.

homemadecider

I made ratatouille from the Smitten Kitchen recipe. Left out the aubergine as I just can't develop a taste for it. Very very happy with how this turned out; very pretty and tasted wonderful.



I served with medium-rare fillet steaks.

Merkin

I made a Mediterranean fish stew this evening (with fish hubby caught yesterday), made with homemade garlic crusts and the obligatory glass of prosecco - was very tasty!!

Martyn1989

It's been a while since I posted, medium steak sandwich on a toasted whole wheat soft bap with fried onions, a slice of jalapeño Monterey Jack, tomato, lettuce, a little mayo and a large squeeze of sriachi, served with a scoop of BBQ beans, a fried egg and a buttery cob with an anchor brekles brown ale to wash it down. Delicious.

The quality around here has been absolutely outstanding the last while, good job everyone.

IvyTheTerrible

Cod filets with herb and lemon crust, new potatoes and spinach.

homemadecider

Steamed hake, potato salad, waldorf salad and mixed green salad.

RasTa

Super simple but liked the sunshine on my dinner

Lingua Franca

B0jangles wrote: »

I have a recipe I've used several times and am pretty happy with:

We REALLY like this recipe.

homemadecider

The end of the hake, served with carrot fritters and potato salad. The slightest twinge of sunshine and I'm all over potato salad!

decisions

A massive portion of Buffalo Wings

AsianDub

Turkish Karniyarik - Stuffed aubergines with minced beef, onions, tomatoes and red peppers.
Served with boiled rice.

tmc86

I haven't done much cooking of late but tonight I made a salad for the sunshine - chicken, bacon, mozzarella, cherry toms, gherkins, iceberg, sweet potato and a couple of slices of wholewheat pitta. Dressed simply with s&p and balsamic vinegar

B0jangles

Lingua Franca wrote: »

We REALLY like this recipe.

Yay! Also thanks for reminding me that today is fresh beansprout day in my local chinese supermarket, ergo today is Pad Thai day here

Dr.MickKiller

Smoked haddock and sweetcorn chowder.

the beer revolu

Tomato basil and West Cork buffalo mozzarella, olive oil.
Chargrilled red pepper, aubergine and courgette.
Spaghetti with rocket and mixed herb pesto.

Ah summer!!:D:D:D

Martyn1989

Friday evening crispy franks wings, medium rare chunk of 'top sirloin'(?) and buttery cob