Category: Dinner (Page 7 of 7)

Yesterday was Thanksgiving and I prepared a (reduced) Thanksgiving feast for our small, nuclear family. Still – cooking for 3 or 7 is not that different and I did spend a fare amount of time in the kitchen. Enough to realize that there is no way I’ll be able to cook Xmas dinner next month – when I’ll be almost 8 months pregnant.
Dinner came out well, but nowhere near perfect. The problem was clearly that I didn’t pay enough attention – pregnancy brain, tiredness, I have tons of excuses. I did leave tons of dirty dishes for Mike to cook, however.
We started with a sweet pumpkin soup, made from a Trader Joe’s base I’d previously bought. All you have to do is add some sour cream and milk, and it’s very good but very sweet. A jar should be enough for four as an appetizer, as you can’t quite handle too much more of the sweetness. Mika liked it and ate quite a bit as well.
Then it was time for the main meal.
I made Roast Turkey with Prosciuto-Hazelnut Crust from this recipe at epicurious.com.
I started by brining the chicken (a free range, organic 12-pounder) in a solution of kosher salt, sugar, dried thyme and bay leaf the night before. Then I rinsed it (note, some of the thyme leaves stuck to the turkey skin), dried it and let it sit in the fridge for several hours before cooking. I cooked it according to instructions, but I wasn’t able to baste it as part of my baster was inexplicably missing. I also overcooked it somewhat. I’d checked the turkey and it had been at 172 – when I checked 10 minutes later it had shot up to 180. Clearly I should have taken it out at 172. Live and learn.
The turkey was very good, I found the drumstick a tad too salty but Mike found the breast was fine. It was, however, too dry – though Mike said he expects that from turkey. Still, I wanted something jucier. Mike loved the skin where the butter had been.
The accompanying gravy was rich and thick and tasted quite good, but the bits of meat made its consistency too disconcerting. The recipe didn’t call for it, but it should definitely had been filtered. In any case, I wasn’t able to palate it – knowing that it was made from the internal organs gave me a case of the willies. This even though I have no problem eating foie gras or pates made out of innards. Oh well, let’s blame it on pregnancy.
I made mashed potatoes from the Zuni’s cookbook recipe. I’d previously made it and loved it. Once again, they were a big hit – I’ll make them again for Xmas and quadruple the recipe. This time they were too lumpy, I didn’t spend enough time mashing the potatoes and I should have probably whipped them for longer (I was afraid they’d get gummy – they didn’t), but the taste was all there. Oh, and this time I didn’t use buttermilk, just whipping cream.
Finally, I made Stove Top stuffing, which I like so much that I never see a need to make any other kind. We made the sourdough kind with salted butter, and I found it a tad too salty – Mike didn’t. I had meant to mix it up with grilled chopped apple-chicken sausage, but I totally forgot. Pregnancy brain again.
I had also meant to make green beans, but we left them in the plastic bag overnight and they had mold by then.
For dessert I made an apple pie. I used frozen Marie Callender pie crusts and they were very good, they tasted great in combination with the apple stuffing. They were too thin, however, so it wasn’t possible to cut off a piece of pie without having the whole thing disintegrate, and my proportion of apple-stuffing to crust was too high (I used four granny smiths, next time I’ll use 3), but the pie was delicious, in particular with some Ben & Jerry’s vanilla ice cream. I had meant to make a sugar-free pie, using Splenda instead of sugar, but once I started adding the spleanda to the apples I realized the taste just wasn’t there so I used probably twice as much sugar as splenda. My other ingredients were cinamon and a dash of nutmeg and ground cloves.
Today our leftovers are mostly turkey and pie. The pie held up great and Mike said his turkey sandwich (bread, turkey and mayo) was awesome.

When I saw the white stilton with apricots at Trader Joe’s I knew I had to try it. I hadn’t had white stilton before, but I love blue stilton. White stilton apparently is a younger version of blue stilton to which the blue mold has not been added. I have to say that without the mold it’s just not as satisfying. In this version it’s mixed with dried apricot pieces. It’s good but nothing extraordinary.
The cheese has a light flavor , slightly more pungent and salty than creme cheese. Its natural flavor is almost completely overwhelmed by the sweet apricot, however. This is not necessarily a bad thing, it tastes good, though I’d have preferred a stronger cheese taste. It has a crumbly texture which makes it hard to spread or it by itself, perhaps its best used would be crumbled over a salad or another dish.
I did like the idea of combining apricots with cheese, though, and I think a bagel with cream cheese and apricot preserves would probably be delicious.

Finally, after months and months of planning to cook Bhutanese food, I started doing it. I decided that I will cook 3 dishes in 3 separate nights. Last night we had Kewa Phagsha, spicy pork with potatoes. It wasn’t half-bad.
The recipe for it is at http://www.marga.org/food/int/bhutan/pork.html
Alas, I forgot to take a picture of the dish, though it wasn’t particularly attractive. Basically large slices of potatoes with small pieces of pork.
Tonight I’m planning on making Ema Datshi, chili & cheese, Bhutan’s “national” dish. Nothing that I’ve read about it makes it sound appetizing, so if it doesn’t work out I’ll just boil some frozen ravioli.

I had heard about Trader Joe’s pizza dough for a while, so during my last TJ trip I bought some of the herbs & garlic one. It’s in the refrigerated section, right next to the pizza sauce (which I also bought). Add some pre-shredded quatro formaggio, some pepperoni and fresh pineapple and alas, we have pizza.
Of course, I first needed a pizza stone and I secured one at the new “dd’s discount” store that opened in San Leandro. This is basically a Ross store selling cheaper crap – kind of like a McFrugals that concentrates on clothing. But they do have the same type of stuff that Ross has, including some cooking items. I got a Farberware pizza stone for $10. It was not a bargain.
I had washed and let dry the stone as the instructions said, but I found myself without the necessary cornmeal to put under the pizza. The instructions said to not use flour as it would burn, so I decided to just put the pizza on the stone. It wasn’t a good idea. As the pizza cooked it merged with the stone and it became impossible to separate it. We basically had to cut through the crust to eat it. It was really good, though now I think I have a useless stone. I don’t know if it’ll be possible to clean it though I’ll try. If I get it clean, I’ll certainly will make pizza again and next time I won’t skip the cornmeal 🙂

Ropa Vieja (literally, “old clothing”) is an old Cuban recipe used to spruce up leftover meat. I got the recipe from the Frugal Gourmet on our Immigrant Ancestors many years ago, and it has always been one of our favorites. The recipe itself is pretty simple, requiring the cooked meat to simmer with chopped onions, garlic and green peppers in tomato sauce and wine. The only spices are salt and bay leaves. But it’s unbelievably delicious.
The dish is quite laborious, however, as you first have cook the meat (unless you have tons of leftover roast around) and then shred it. It shreds easily but it takes quite a long time to do it. Stopping yourself from eating the meat while you shred it is also quite a task.
I usually serve Ropa Vieja with rice, but this time I served it with quinoa. I wanted to try it. We weren’t too impressed. The package instructions – cook it in a rice cooker with twice as much water as quinoa – made for a soupy mess. next time I wouldn’t use more than 1 1/2 xs water. I don’t think we liked the slightly nutty/bitter taste of the quinoa, though it did grow on us. Perhaps it will be better with other types of sauces. I still have some more, so I’ll probably make it again.

I love milanesas. They’re not very healthy and they’re a bit of a pain to make (or rather, to clean up after), but they are soooo good.
Last night I made them with some very thin meat from Safeway I didn’t even need to beat up. The empanadas were extremely tender and wonderful in thin slices of sourdough bread with lemon juice, tomato slices and baby spinach. Yummmm.
Recipe

Kathy wanted meat with sauce and I decided on making a beef stroganoff. I’ve made one years ago without great success, then had a great one prepared by a Russian friend in Italy so that I can now really tell the difference between good and not-so-good. The recipe I found at allrecipes.com was supposed to be great, it got 5-star ratings, but at least in my hands it ended up being not-so-good. It was edible, all right, but it didn’t have much flavor. Maybe I should have used more mustard.

Kathy wanted beef for dinner last night so I decided on this easy marinade recipe. It calls for Italian dressing, Worcestershire sauce & BBQ sauce. I used tri-tip, which is a good grilling cut.
They were OK – Kathy didn’t think they were flavorful enough. I think I should have salted the meat before marinating it.
Tonight we are going to Casa Madrid for dinner – I can’t wait.

Monday night I made braised lamb shanks with caramelized onions from this Epicurious recipe. They smelled wonderfully but tasted flat. I think next time I make lamb shanks I may use the Zuni Cafe recipe for braised oxtails.

Tonight for dinner I made Estofado de Vaca Aragon