What did you cook today?

[smcmaui]

Miso glazed salmon over jasmine rice with a fresh salad prepared from the garden

[ronnie_suburban]

Made a very quick and satisfying after-work curry tonight . . .


Mise En Place & Konosuke SKD Tsuchime Gyuto, 210mm
Shallots, basil leaves, bamboo shoots, Maesri red curry paste, Thai bird chiles, kaffir lime leaves, extra firm tofu, fried shallot oil, Bangkok spice blend, cremini mushrooms, coconut milk, zucchini, 4x gelatinous chicken stock, fish sauce and boneless, skinless chicken thigh pieces.

There's been some curry discord in the Suburban household lately. The last few batches were too spicy for everyone but me. In order to keep everyone happy, I've been systematically dialing it back. Tonight, I only used two of the chiles in the shot above, pounding them gently and leaving them whole. I used a mere sprinkling of the Bangkok spice on the chicken before I sauteed it in the fried shallot oil. And I used the Three Crabs fish sauce, which is the sweetest of the ones I have in my pantry. The result was at the very tame end of my spiciness preference but everyone else was very pleased. So, I think I have a template going forward.

I've had some fun with that Konosuke SKD lately. It's such a stellar, all-around performer, it's hard to put anything else on the board. But I plan to make myself move on to some other knives very soon.


Plated Up
Red Curry Chicken, garnished with scallion greens, served over brown jasmine rice.

[smcmaui]

looks good, would love the recipe

[ronnie_suburban]

looks good, would love the recipe

It's become more of a 'winging it' situation over time but my starting point was this youtube video by Pailin, which is a great resource. There's really no end to the variations you can apply to it.

Tonight, I tried to recreate a great green bean dish I had at Prairie Grass Cafe over the weekend. I failed miserably at mimicking it but still ended up with something pretty good (that, happily, my family really liked) . . .


Mise En Place & Makoto Coreless Damascus Gyuto, 210mm
Garlic scapes, sliced garlic, fried shallot oil, spring onion greens, white wine, 4x gelatinous chicken stock, black pepper, salt and shallots.

The PGC dish was green beans in a ramp mash. In lieu of ramps (hope to get some next week), I attempted the dish using spring onion greens. I started by sauteing the garlic, garlic scapes and shallots in fried shallot oil. Once they sweated a bit, I added some stock and a dash of wine. After it all softened, I let it reduce for a couple of minutes, then seasoned it with salt and pepper.


Sauteed & Softened Melange

After it cooked down a while, I pureed it with the stick blender. This is when the obvious occurred to me: spring onion greens do not possess anywhere close to the flavor intensity of ramps. I poured the meek, mild-mannered, pureed mash into a small sauce pan, reduced it further and continued to tweak it along the way with a bunch of items that were not in my initial mise (worcestershire sauce, Manale spice rub, Golden Mountain and msg). What I ended up with was tasty, and made a very nice "sauce" for the green beans (which were sauteed to tender-crisp separately) but it was nothing close to the dish I was trying to emulate. In a shocking outcome, my green beans basically sucked when compare to the ones made by a two-time James Beard Award-winning chef. Go figure!


Ready For Service
Tender-crisp green beans in spring onion sprout puree, garnished with a pulverized parmesan/romano blend. I also garnished my individual serving with some red chile flakes. The rest of dinner was the end of our leftover Passover brisket, reheated, which was still very good.

[ronnie_suburban]

Fairly decent attempt at a few Thai dishes tonight . . .


Mise En Place & CCK Small Cleaver
Rough schematic for pad ka-prao. Thai (not holy) basil, oyster sauce, fried shallot oil (have it, so why not?), dark sweet soy sauce, fish sauce, Golden Mountain seasoning sauce, hand-minced pork neck and garlic/shallot/Thai bird chiles in the mortar.

Getting closer to finding Thai holy basil (and I plan on growing my own this summer) but this standard, Thai variety was a very nice step up from genovese in this dish. I considered breaking out the meat grinder with a large-holed cutter for the pork neck but I opted for the CCK instead, and had fun with it. At one point I had it in one hand and my Dexter cleaver in the other, and I briefly entered berserker mode. Happily, the name Ronnie Nine Fingers does not apply


Mortar & Pestle
Getting better with the m&p, too. Had to put on some reading glasses while doing this because the vapors from the chiles and shallots were really making me tear up.

Since I was also able to find Japanese-variety eggplant, I decided on Thai-style broiled eggplant salad as a side . . .


Eggplant Mise En Place & Katayama VG10 Suminagashi Gyuto 210mm
Palm sugar, shallots, key limes, cilantro leaves, fish sauce, Japanese eggplant, hard boiled eggs and Thai bird chiles.
Good thing they gave me these key limes when I carried out from the taqueria because all the limes I had at home were totally gross. They were a bit more tart than Persian limes but I made them work in the dressing.


Thai-Style Broiled Eggplant Salad
Eggplant pieces are split down the middle, brushed with oil and broiled for ~12 minutes. After that, the salad is dressed and garnished on the platter. I love this dish and definitely do not make it enough. However, now that I'm getting out and about a bit more, I think it'll be easier to source the right eggplants. Yes, you can use larger varieties but they just don't work as well.


Plated Up
Pad Ka-Prao. Definitely my best iteration to date. The Thai basil made a huge difference and even though I doubled the recipe, I did not double the amount of Golden Mountain. I think that may have been the key. For my palate, it needs to be in there but less is definitely more.

[ronnie_suburban]

More pork tonight. Leaving last night's pork neck pad ka-prao behind, tonight it was charcoal-grilled tenderloin. But first, there was some side-dishery . . .


Mise En Place & Konosuke HD Petty, 120mm
Found another crazy-old bottle of varietal Spanish evoo. By all accounts, this should be beyond rancid but again, it's still in working order. Going to work through it asap, before that changes.


Sauteed Broccoli Rabe with Garlic, Lemon & Red Chile Flakes
This one has become a real crowd-pleaser at Chez Suburban.


Salad
Romaine, arugula and campari tomatoes. I was feeling lazy, so I ended up dressing this with some store-bought dressing.


Plated Up
Charcoal-grilled pork tenderloin and sauteed broccoli rabe. Trimmed, trussed, oiled and seasoned before it hit the grill, I pulled the tenderloin off when it reached 135F. That seemed just about right.

[jacko9]

More pork tonight. Leaving last night's pork neck pad ka-prao behind, tonight it was charcoal-grilled tenderloin. But first, there was some side-dishery . . .


Mise En Place & Konosuke HD Petty, 120mm
Found another crazy-old bottle of varietal Spanish evoo. By all accounts, this should be beyond rancid but again, it's still in working order. Going to work through it asap, before that changes.


Sauteed Broccoli Rabe with Garlic, Lemon & Red Chile Flakes
This one has become a real crowd-pleaser at Chez Suburban.


Salad
Romaine, arugula and campari tomatoes. I was feeling lazy, so I ended up dressing this with some store-bought dressing.


Plated Up
Charcoal-grilled pork tenderloin and sauteed broccoli rabe. Trimmed, trussed, oiled and seasoned before it hit the grill, I pulled the tenderloin off when it reached 135F. That seemed just about right.

That pork tenderloin looks so delicious - I can almost taste it from the picture

[ronnie_suburban]

Family favorite, baked rotini again tonight. But first, dressing and salad . . .


Salad Dressing Mise En Place & Shigeki Tanaka Aogami #2 Petty, 150mm
This (ancient and recently found) evoo tastes tremendously like olives; more so than just about any other evoo I can remember having. As much as I want to use it up before it might go bad, I don't plan using it in any hot applications going forward. That would be a waste. Tip of the cap to Chappy for posting about using the Ball jar for making salad dressings. It works much better than the lidded tumbler I used to use because its smaller size is more practical.


Salad
Arugula, campari tomatoes and the vinaigrette.


Unbaked Rotini
I mixed it up a bit this time by subbing in fresh mozzarella for ricotta. I liked the change. The overall dish was less sweet and zero graininess from the ricotta, even though the mozzarella was very stringy (in a fun way).


Baked Rotini
35 minutes @ 375F, then 5 minutes @350F convection baked. Let it stand for 10-15 minutes before serving.


Plated Up
Garnished with parsley, chives and grated parmesan.

[Jeff B]

Made a version of this for the wife and she LOVED it, thanks for the inspiration for this Ronnie! Have a new dish now to through into the mix.
Of course I didn't think to take pictures, it's always the last thing from my mind when I'm cooking. Maybe some day....

[ronnie_suburban]

Made a version of this for the wife and she LOVED it, thanks for the inspiration for this Ronnie! Have a new dish now to through into the mix.

Very nice. Yeah, it seems to be a universal crowd-pleaser. Glad I was able to pass that Chef John favorite on. So easy and yet "why didn't I think of that?"

Fairly typical Sunday food plan for us today: big brunch, nice dinner and some daylong background cooking (today, that was making stock out of a sizable pork neck, which I roasted and then managed to cram into the Instant Pot) . . .


Cheese & Scallion Omelet
With store-bought sausage and the last piece of gastro gnome's stellar sourdough (toasted and buttered).

Dinner . . .


Cauliflower Mash Mise En Place & Yu Kurosaki VG10 Fujin, 210mm
Allium-heavy, as usual. Actually went with butter over evoo or fried shallot oil this time around.



NY Strips
From Zier's in Wilmette, IL. Some really nice marbling on these babies.


Charcoal-Grilled
Per my usual SOP, a minute or so on each side over the coals (turned once) and then finished on the indirect side.


Plated Up
With cauliflower mash, grilled asparagus (indirect while the grilled steaks rested) and some leftover mushrooms from I don't know when.

[ronnie_suburban]

Stirred up a good one tonight, as it were. Getting more and more familiar with my not-so-new-anymore wok, while getting RID of all sorts of items . . .


Mise En Place & Katayama SG2 Suminagashi Gyuto 210mm
It ended up being quite a multi-cultural affair. Lap cheong (also used some kabanos that I found after I took the picture), sliced garlic, salsa macha (leftover from a carry-out meal a few weeks ago), Chinese-style bacon, shallots, scallion bottoms, microplaned ginger, hot Italian sausage, scallion tops, soy sauce, fioretto, shallots, extra firm tofu, Shaoxing wine, Tien Tsin chili peppers, fried shallot oil, cabbage, slivered creminis, Sichuan peppercorn powder and a spice paste, which was comprised of the fermented tofu in the jar next to it, fermented black beans, soy sauce and Shaoxing wine.

Started by blooming the chiles in the oil, then removing them. From there, meats, aromatics, fioretto, liquids/paste, cabbage, mushrooms and finally, tofu. 15 minutes to prep and about 10 minutes to cook it all.

First time out with the Katayama which, not surprisingly, reminds me a lot of my Saji. Glide-smooth cuts and a beautiful fit & finish. The handle feels particularly unique. It's flatter than it looks. Still was able to get a firm, comfortable grip on it but I can't say I've ever used a knife with a handle quite like this one.


Plated Up
Garnished with scallion tops and Lao Man Ga chili crisp.

Happy Monday!

[Jeff B]

Looks awesome Ronnie but unfortunately for you we now expect no less!

[ronnie_suburban]

Looks awesome Ronnie but unfortunately for you we now expect no less!

LOL - so much pressure!

Leftovers for us on Tuesday (lunch and dinner) but the day was not without some cooking. I just couldn't let some aging bananas go to waste . . .


Banana Bread & Tojiro ITK Bread Knife, 270mm

Riffed on the classic recipe in Joy of Cooking. I browned some of the butter, added a touch of vanilla, a splash of rum and used a 50/50 mix of white and brown sugars. In the end, just a lowly banana bread -- can't even call this baking -- but hey, at least those $0.29/pound bananas didn't go to waste.

[ronnie_suburban]

Took another shot at keto fried chicken tonight (hey, I just realized that's also kfc!) and once again, it turned out really well. But first, another salad . . .


Salad
Romaine, arugula, campari tomatoes and a really nice shallot-dijon vinaigrette that I kind of hit upon by accident.


Plated Up
KFC (hehe), leftover cauliflower mash and steamed asparagus with butter. The "sauce" is a tasty mixture of kewpie mayo, Lao Man Ga chili crisp and togarashi. Whatever. It worked.

[Mike9]

A very generous friend of ours came back from Manhattan Monday with pastrami from Katz's on Houston St. We thought he was bringing sliced, vac'd pastrami, but no. Instead he gave three of us a whole point cut!!! Mine weighed 4.6 pounds and the instruction said to "boil for three hours, or until tender". We had the kids over for "Deli Night" and the 7 of us made a serious dent in it - I think I went into a pastrami coma last night.


I had to get "the big pot" out of the cellar -

[ronnie_suburban]

My recently unlocked in-person access to smaller markets (especially one in particular right near my office) has me venturing down a bit of a rabbit hole. It's hard to pass up a big ole' bunch of fresh Thai basil, and Thai basil means pad ka-prao . . .


Mise En Place & Takamura Migaki SG2 Gyuto, 210mm
Thai bird chiles, diced carrot, garlic, oyster sauce, dark sweet soy, coarse-ground pork, peanut oil, Thai basil leaves, Golden Mountain, fish sauce and shallots. Please don't judge me for the carrot. Last time I made this, I had a vision that including some just-past-al dente diced carrot would enhance the texture and flavor of the dish. With apologies to the purists, it really worked. Can't say I'll do it that way every time but this won't be the last. And between us, that Migaki just makes me look for things to cut.

My novice-level skills benefited from the elbow grease I put into making this dish last week but I'm nursing a pinched nerve in my neck right now, so I was happy to buy the coarsely-ground pork at the market instead of hacking it out myself with two cleavers (even though that was quite fun). The grind turned out to be perfect. And by the same token, I think it's important for me to continue learn how to effectively use a mortar and pestle but this time around, I opted for my Magic Bullet, which made quick work of the shallots, chile and garlic, turning them into a homogeneous paste.


Plated Up
With brown jasmine rice from the rice cooker and a stir fried eggplant dish I wish I'd documented because it came together really nicely. It started with slivered garlic and microplaned ginger cooked hot and fast in my wok in a dash of peanut oil. After that, the eggplant, a blob of homemade hatch chile paste, soy sauce, 4x chicken stock, chinkiang vinegar, a spoonful of fermented soy bean paste, white pepper and Sichuan peppercorns. I thought I might need to add a cornstarch slurry but I got the moisture level just right. Beginner's luck.

[ronnie_suburban]

I was able to get a hook-up from a chef friend and landed three pounds of ramps, which I plan on using in three separate projects. The first, completed just moments ago, was pickling . . .


Washed Ramps
Man, you haven't lived until you've thoroughly cleaned three pounds of ramps!


Trimmed
Removed the root ends. Approaching order.


Sorted Ramps & Yu Kurosaki VG10 Fujin Petty, 120mm
Separating the leaves from the stems/bulbs so I can cook and use them selectively.


Pickling Mise En Place
Crammed as many stems as I could into a wide-mouth quart jar. Everything on the plate -- yellow mustard seed, fennel seed, celery seed, red chile flakes, pickling salt, granulated sugar, black peppercorns and coriander -- got simmered in the vinegar and water until the sugar and salt had dissolved. After that, poured the hot solution into the jar until the ramps were covered, let it all cool and sealed it up.


Jarred Up
These should be ready in a couple of days and gone shortly thereafter.

[Jeff B]

Ronnie, the variety of sauces, spices, condiments and just overall ingredients you have and use is as impressive as the awesome dishes you create!

[Mike9]

My house smells like Cioppino at the moment and it's heavenly - squid for the long, slow cook then scallops, fish mix and little necks.
Ok - an hour on the squid then the clams and when they opened in want the scallops and fish - OH MY!!! Talk about tasty - served with toasted pita points and bacon/parsley topping.

[Jeff B]

My house smells like Cioppino at the moment and it's heavenly - squid for the long, slow cook then scallops, fish mix and little necks.
Ok - an hour on the squid then the clams and when they opened in want the scallops and fish - OH MY!!! Talk about tasty - served with toasted pita points and bacon/parsley topping.

That looks absolutely delicious Mike, WOW!