The 'Here's what I had for dinner last night' thread - Part II - Don't quote pics!

Shenshen

Whispered wrote: »

That looks amazing. I'd love a recipe for the mushroom dumpling dish if you don't mind.

They're just bread dumplings - but you've given me an idea there, they could be stuffed with a mushroom mix, I might give that a try eventually.

The recipe is simple enough:

Finely chop a small onion, and fry in a little butter until soft.
Cut about 8 pieces of white bread into small squares (you can use any leftover bread, it's a good way of using up stale bread), and cover with hot milk to soak.

Once the bread has soaked (takes no time at all with fresh, but if it's old it might take a minute or so), add the softened onion, some finely chopped parsley and a pinch of salt.
You'll have to get your hands dirty now - get in an mash it all up and mix it through.
Add 1 egg, and then add about 1 cup of dry breadcrumbs (have to be the dry ones, you can get them in any Polish shop. The fresh ones are no good for this) and keep mixing. You should get a dough that's sticky, but will hold a shape.

Get a big pot of salted water to the boil, then return to a simmer. Shape the dumplings and drop them in one by one. Keep simmering, they're done once they float.

Tilly

I was taken out for lunch in the Shelbourne on Friday. Only got pics of the starter (goats cheese and pear) and desert (a little of everything). The main was chicken with a lovely creamy sauce and garlic spuds done in a fancy square shape

Tarzana2

Mystery Egg wrote: »

Tonight we had a rich chilli con carne, packed full of beans, spices and red wine. I have officially decided never to use chopped tomatoes in chilli again. It is just so much better without them. Tonight's was so good and savoury, with tortilla breads, sour cream and cheese. Nom.

So, you didn't use any tomato at all? Not passata or purée even? That sounds really interesting. Do you have a recipe?

Dial Hard

Beef kofta curry.

Tilly

Chicken mixed with red curry paste and some coconut milk. Nice and quick tonight.

Whispered

Very simple. Roast baby potatoes with garlic, corn cob, broccoli. Smothered in blue cheese. Glass of red.

Soon to be followed by a jam donut. That's a classic combination, right?!

Mystery Egg

Tarzana2 wrote: »

So, you didn't use any tomato at all? Not passata or purée even? That sounds really interesting. Do you have a recipe?

I used a tube of tomato purée as the tomato element. I find cans of chopped tomatoes tend to, for whatever reason, have a kind of grainy texture, perhaps from not being the best quality tomatoes. The purée adds the tomato flavour without the texture that I so dislike.

This is roughly what I did:

I blitzed 2 celery sticks, 2 onions and 1 carrot finely in the food processor and then sautéed it in some olive oil in a large pot for about 10 minutes. I added 1kg of minced beef and broke it up well. Once browned I drained off some of the excess fat, lowered the heat, then added 5 crushed cloves of garlic, 2 finely sliced chillies, some smoked paprika, hot curry powder, dried mixed green herbs, cinnamon, salt and pepper and gave it a few minutes to cook the spices. Then I added a pint of rich beef stock, a glass of red wine, a tube of tomato puree, a couple of tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce, a teaspoon of sugar and a splash of white wine vinegar. Next went in a can each of kidney beans and black beans, rinsed. Then I stirred well, brought to the boil and then reduced the heat to a simmer for about 40 minutes, adding more stock/wine if it seemed to get dry, and taste-testing for more salt/sugar/chilli as needed. It yielded 7 large servings.

Custardpi

That's a great recipe, not a million miles away from my own approach (which I'm still perfecting). I'd still use passata though myself. The normal tinned chopped tomatoes aren't great it's true. I use the Tesco Finest cherry tomatoes which come whole but a second in a blender sorts that. They have a wonderfully sweet flavour & work far better than any standard tin of chopped tomatoes I've tried in either a chilli or a bolognese.

Spanish Eyes

I also think tins of chopped toms are rubbish.

I use tinned whole plum toms and either blitz or mash first. They are so much better than the chopped ones. I dunno, they seem to have a rich thick juice aswell.

northgirl

I had my dinner at lunchtime so made scrambled eggs this evening which I completely over-salted and are now in the bin :mad: It has been a rubbish Monday!

northgirl

Spanish Eyes wrote: »

I also think tins of chopped toms are rubbish.

I use tinned whole plum toms and either blitz or mash first. They are so much better than the chopped ones. I dunno, they seem to have a rich thick juice aswell.

The consistency of the sauces in both is totally different, you're right. The plum are definitely far superior.

RentDayBlues

Beef bourguignon (sort of) with creamy sweet potato and butternut mash

Spanish Eyes

RentDayBlues wrote: »

Beef bourguignon (sort of) with creamy sweet potato and butternut mash

That is comfort food for the gods!

Getting near to October and the Winter, so this will be on the menu more often.

Although the weather is kind of Mediterranean at the moment, so salads and lighter stuff for me at the moment.

Mystery Egg

Last night we had friends over so it was a slightly more special meal than usual. We were celebrating so a bottle or two of Cava may have been popped.

To start we had a roasted figs on a bed of dressed rocket, with prosciutto and goat's cheese, and some nice little brioche rolls.

The main course was six-hour slow roast roast shoulder of pork with perfect crackling, stuffed with apple, herb and sausagemeat stuffing, with mash, roasted chantenay carrots and steamed sugar snap peas. The gravy was pretty fabulous.

Dessert was nothing special - some shop bought baklava and some Butlers mint dark chocolate with coffee, and a cheeky round of Baileys on ice.

Tonight we had a dinner of leftovers - I made potato cakes from the leftover mash, which we ate with leftover pork and stuffing, with a corn on the cob on the side. We were given some delicious apple pie by the neighbours which was warmed up and devoured with cream.

Might need a lighter few days' eating for a while!

Mrs Fox

Bit of a disaster. I wanted to use up the bbq chicken Mr Fox got from Supervalu deli this afternoon and make a creamy penne pasta with mushroom. The meat disintegrated into mush. I couldn't eat it, was just vile. So I opened a bag of root vegetable crisps and that was my dinner. Luckily himself was still at work so I sent him this text:

beertons

Saturday was a fairly mild day, so decided to make use of the bbq. Got 4 steaks from the butcher, cost a fiver, and just cooked them for about 5 mins each side. Brought them in and cut them into strips. Made a mary rose sauce with mayo, lemon juice, worchestire sauce and sriracha. My god, it was hot. Made up a salad with green leaves, red cabbage, fried up 2 onions, sliced up 2 avocados too. I loved it. The kids liked making it up, although theirs just had steak and ketchup. Great fun. No pic as my phone and my laptop aren't on talking terms now, god dammit.

Pizza for dinner on Wednesday, made the dough this evening. It's lovely now, giving it a while to get itself together, comes out kind of stretchy. Tastes much lighter too.

beertons

Saturday was a fairly mild day, so decided to make use of the bbq. Got 4 steaks from the butcher, cost a fiver, and just cooked them for about 5 mins each side. Brought them in and cut them into strips. Made a mary rose sauce with mayo, lemon juice, worchestire sauce and sriracha. My god, it was hot. Made up a salad with green leaves, red cabbage, fried up 2 onions, sliced up 2 avocados too. Toasted up a few Pita's. I loved it. The kids liked making it up, although theirs just had steak and ketchup. Great fun. No pic as my phone and my laptop aren't on talking terms now, god dammit.

Pizza for dinner on Wednesday, made the dough this evening. It's lovely now, giving it a while to get itself together, comes out kind of stretchy. Tastes much lighter too.

TeletextPear

I've been up the walls lately and haven't eaten a proper dinner in about a week so took advantage of a rare day off today to go all out. Headed down to the butchers and picked up a gigantic lamb shank, studded it with loads of rosemary and garlic and cooked it low n slow for a few hours. Made gravy from the juices, mint sauce, roast potatoes, veg - the works. Ohh man it was good. Got the leftovers to turn into a lamb curry tomorrow.

dibkins

I had some leftover risotto so i fried it up and had it with some salad. Nom.

Makood

Last night, Spud with a fried onion and chicken breast cooked in those papery things. Our own cucumbers and tomatoes with a Lidl Balsamic. Absolutely gorgeous.

Tonight-Slow cooked pork chops in a gravy (the crazy Ukrainians invention), potato and onion again and the same salad!


The lidl balsamic is with eucalyptus honey and is gorgeous, imo. Anyone tried?

IvyTheTerrible

Fish pie - with sweetcorn, peas and green bean mixed in with the fish. Lovely.

Mystery Egg

Sweetcorn on your fish pie! Unorthodox! :pac:

Tonight we had venison sausages in brioche rolls, with fried onions, ketchup and mustard.

NOS3

Roast chicken, kale, carrots and boiled potatoes.

vicwatson

Mash, carrots, broccoli, 2 superquinn sausages, 2 aldi dry cure rashers, would have liked a bit of turnip with it.

Mrs Fox

Had round roast that I've marinated for the last two days. Oh the flavour! It was roasted on very high temp for 20 minutes, turned off the temp and left in the oven for two hours. Absolute perfection, crust on the outside, medium rare inside. Served with mash, braised carrots and peas, and roast brussels sprouts. Too hungry for photo.

dibkins

I ate so much dal that i might jsut skip breakfast. So tasty.

Gloomtastic!

Mrs Fox wrote: »

Had round roast that I've marinated for the last two days. Oh the flavour! It was roasted on very high temp for 20 minutes, turned off the temp and left in the oven for two hours. Absolute perfection, crust on the outside, medium rare inside. Served with mash, braised carrots and peas, and roast brussels sprouts. Too hungry for photo.

What did you marinate it in?

Mrs Fox

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

What did you marinate it in?

Using this recipe. It was damn fine.

northgirl

Steak, Portobello Mushroom, Fried Onions, Roast Potatoes, Asparagus.

Mystery Egg

Mrs Fox wrote: »

Had round roast that I've marinated for the last two days. Oh the flavour! It was roasted on very high temp for 20 minutes, turned off the temp and left in the oven for two hours. Absolute perfection, crust on the outside, medium rare inside. Served with mash, braised carrots and peas, and roast brussels sprouts. Too hungry for photo.

What temp did you set the oven to? I presume you preheated it? And you then turned the oven off altogether and left the beef in there? I want to try this and am keen not to get the details wrong.