What’s for dinner? Part 9

[dog-days]

My big event of 2023, the muesli trials, continue. This morning I mixed a small can of blackcurrants in with the oats and hot soy milk. 

Although I like blackcurrants, their flavour is so intense that it tends to take over everything instead of acting as a complement. Blackcurrant muesli ends up tasting like wet blackcurrant concrete. Don't think I'll repeat that one. Note to self: blackcurrants should be eaten raw, in jam, or as the filling in a cheesecake, and otherwise not. 

On the other hand, tinned peaches and ginger worked very well. 

Edited May 1, 2023 by dog-days

[Sw33t Summ3r Ch1ld]

I had leftover lasagna and garlic bread.

[Toth]

Another food experiment inspired by Tasting History:

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/971086032424562718/1106985104527609996/20230513_174253.jpg

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/971086032424562718/1106985104955412650/20230513_173954.jpg

It's pork with apples from an Ancient Roman cook book named De Re Coquinaria. The pork... tastes pretty much as you would expect pork to taste like. The sauce however is the main protagonist. It consists of cumin, coriander leaves and coriander seeds, mint, honey, white wine vinegar, Garum, Asafetida (as a replacement for the extinct Silphium), Defrutum and starch.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/971086032424562718/1106591886594035772/20230512_163725.jpg

I can't stress enough that it's really, really good. It is very sweet, slightly sour, though I thoroughly boiled out the vinegar, while at the same time has a certain rich intensity that is hard to describe. I suppose most of that is the Defrutum, but the combination of other ingredients certainly plays into it.

I then also put it onto leftover spaghetti from yesterday. Not quite historically correct, but still Italian and the original recipe is for leftover pork as well.

[BigFatCoward]

27 minutes ago, Toth said:

The sauce however is the main protagonist. It consists of cumin, coriander leaves and coriander seeds, mint, honey, white wine vinegar, Garum, Asafetida (as a replacement for the extinct Silphium), Defrutum and starch.

That sounds fucking lush. And can totally imagine it working with pig. 

[Zorral]

@Toth That does sound both delicious and intriguing.

[Phylum of Alexandria]

People in the National Capital Region should check out this Roman-style pizza place. It's pricy, but effing delicious:

https://www.straccipizza.com/

[Sw33t Summ3r Ch1ld]

We had beef stir fry.

[Toth]

9 hours ago, Zorral said:

@Toth That does sound both delicious and intriguing.

I basically just did this:

 

[RhaenysBee]

Today I cooked for the first time in months    Vegan borscht. Well, vegan as long as you don’t dump two table spoons of sour cream in your plate like I do. It turned out nice because for once I didn’t skip any ingredients. will have to freeze like two litres of it because I forgot to halve the recipe.

[BigFatCoward]

On 5/13/2023 at 10:23 PM, Phylum of Alexandria said:

People in the National Capital Region should check out this Roman-style pizza place. It's pricy, but effing delicious:

https://www.straccipizza.com/

is it?  that seems pretty reasonable to me. i'd pay that much for a shitty dominos pizza. 

[Phylum of Alexandria]

3 hours ago, BigFatCoward said:

is it?  that seems pretty reasonable to me. i'd pay that much for a shitty dominos pizza. 

I guess I don't know anymore these days!

In my head, concerts should be $5-20 a ticket, and pizza should be $1-2 a slice, maybe up to $20 for a large with toppings.

(I guess this really belongs in the Getting Older thread)

Anyway, it is quite tasty. 

[dog-days]

I'm thinking about making potato salad for dinner. Dunno why, but it's been on my mind lately.

[kairparavel]

On 5/13/2023 at 5:23 PM, Phylum of Alexandria said:

People in the National Capital Region should check out this Roman-style pizza place. It's pricy, but effing delicious:

https://www.straccipizza.com/

Doubtful we'd cross the river for this. I will say there's a lot of great pizza in DC and it's in walking distance or a short train ride. Honorable mention to Hersh's in Baltimore. 

[Phylum of Alexandria]

7 hours ago, kairparavel said:

Doubtful we'd cross the river for this. I will say there's a lot of great pizza in DC and it's in walking distance or a short train ride. Honorable mention to Hersh's in Baltimore. 

Well, I personally don't approach this place as a pizza place. Their pizza doesn't really fit my conception of pizza too well. It's on a focaccia-like crust, only a little bit of sauce, served with a few dollops of chilled stracciatella cheese. It's damn tasty, but  my need for warm cheesy, saucy goodness is separate from this experience.

Just think of it as a restaurant with a talented high-end chef doing more of a casual Italian food experience. The owner is the former chef of Vermillion in Alexandria, which was my favorite restaurant before the pandemic. When they re-opened in October 22, I found that they had gotten a new chef! And it was still good, but nothing really special.

I still prefer this chef's crazy inventive ideas for fine dining at Vermillion, but he knows how to make great food, so I'll take great Italian.  

Still, I don't think it would be worth it to go just for pickup, and they only do reservations for parties of 5 and more. So if you do ever want to check it out, plan to go with a group.

But if I were to pick one place most worth crossing the river for, it would be Nasime. I go to Japan often, as my wife is Japanese (and we first met when I was studying abroad there). A lot of places in the DMV area are "good for the US." Nasime could do very well even in Tokyo. It's pricy, and tiny, but a real gem.

 

Edited May 17, 2023 by Phylum of Alexandria

[Nas!]

My grilling skills are such that, even though I’ve been vegetarian for several years, my family still relies on me to cook their animal carcasses to perfection. 

[BigFatCoward]

4 hours ago, Nas! said:

My grilling skills are such that, even though I’ve been vegetarian for several years, my family still relies on me to cook their animal carcasses to perfection. 

It's probably something to do with you being able to be patient and waiting until the exact tight moment, a carnivore just wants to get that meat off the bbq and into their face.  

[HexMachina]

I made a spicy, beany, tomato stew with lots of onions, mushrooms and peppers and then cracked some eggs on top (essentially shakshuka) and served it with potatoes with a lemon, mint and yoghurt drizzle

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Went vegan today.

Rice with beans (from a Korean cooking book I got some years ago).

Bit bland, but you gotta do what you gotta do sometimes (esp. when you were too lazy to go grocery shopping Saturday).

[Sw33t Summ3r Ch1ld]

We had some slow cooker pork Mexican concoction over Frito's. It was pretty good but I think that red enchilada sauce should have been added. It could have been better....and since Mom cooked it, I couldn't have helped it out. 

[Zorral]

As an experiment, for tonight's dinner I 'grilled', 'blackened' cajun shrimp under the broiler, along with zukes, yellow squash, eggplant, red peppers, a couple of shakes of red chili flakes -- ample - chopped and cooked onion and garlic and celery, with a teeny bit of wine and butter), to serve with couscous.  Made cole slaw as the side.

The experiment part is that my stoves grilling function is almost non-existent,v so had no idea whether or not it would just burn things, not cook.

But! it turned out fine!  Whew!

Thus we begin the long holiday weekend that marks the end of summer in these parts, no matter what the weather and temps may be.

Thus skipping the beer we'd dearly liked to have had with dinner.  There is ample opportunity for that this weekend, so we'll continue to wait another couple days for that.

Edited August 30, 2023 by Zorral