What did you cook today?

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Re: What did you cook today?

Post by ronnie_suburban »

Bob Z wrote: Mon May 24, 2021 9:49 pm Our definition of quick and easy seems to be different than yours. Maybe you have too many gyutos and feel the pressure to use them?
Haha, curry is certainly easier than spaghetti and meatballs, as long as you're set up on the ingredients. It's almost all pantry/fridge/freezer and it cooks in a single wok, so the clean-up couldn't be much easier. Maybe 10 minutes to prep (as you can see from my pic, it's a lot of can opening) and 20-25 minutes to cook from start to finish . . . and no gyuto needed. I could do it with a Swiss army knife if I had to! :P
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Re: What did you cook today?

Post by Miles »

Ronnie single-handedly keeping this post up top. Great posts and nice prep shots too
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Re: What did you cook today?

Post by ronnie_suburban »

Even quicker and easier than last night, though not quite as good, either. Mrs. Suburban picked up some thin-cut, bone-in pork chops at WF. But before that, side dishery. And if you'll notice, not a gyuto in sight . . . :lol:

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8-Minute Asparagus
Trimmed, oiled, salted and peppered, then cooked indirect the entire way. This is the halfway mark. I'm still working on my seasonal asparagus fatigue but I'm not even close yet! :P

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Grilling
Thin and lean, these chops needed only about 2 minutes per side, directly over the lump.

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On The Platter
Even with the asparagus, this was one of the quickest grilling sessions in recent memory. The fire was so nice, I was sorry I hadn't planned for a better protein to grill. :(

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Plated Up
With the end of the leftover Japanese eggplant from Sunday night.
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Re: What did you cook today?

Post by timos »

idk what came over me but had to throw this together tonight, i first read about this combo on cktg forum and done it a couple times now. brussel sprouts, chopped crunchy bacon, vermont maple syrup, EVOO, good red wine venegar, and toasted pine nuts ..maybe its b/c i recently tried some salt n vinegar crickets but i think those crunchy buggers would be great in here! , maybe next time.
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Re: What did you cook today?

Post by ronnie_suburban »

With limited time and a large, fading bundle of Shanghai bok choy tips from Super H-Mart, I decided to just wing it tonight and see what happened . . .

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Mise En Place & Kohetsu Blue #2 Addict, 240mm
Shanghai bok choy tips, broad bean paste, peanut oil, soy sauce, oyster sauce, fermented soy bean sauce, 4x gelatinous beef stock and garlic (later crushed). Wasn't sure where this was going but hoped that by using some of the viscous stock, I'd end up somewhere between soup and stew.

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Separated & Chopped
Parted out the leaves and slivered the cores, so that I could better control their respective cooking times. Started the cooking with the cores and oil in a hot wok, then added the rest of the mise, except for the garlic, which I added toward the end. Finished the cook with the leaves, which took only a few moments to soften.

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Plated Up
Garnished with chili crisp and the currently-ubiquitous chive blossoms. I guess I'd describe it as braised bok choy. Quite flavorful and the texture of the cores was tender but not mushy. Sauce was fairly thick, which allowed it to cling to the leaves nicely. A little protein would have probably been a good addition. Guessing I'll be hungry later.
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Re: What did you cook today?

Post by ronnie_suburban »

Started the day's cooking by prepping some ingredients for a side dish I'm taking to a friend's house tomorrow night. Eventually, this will be a spinach and parmesan casserole which, I hope, will pair up nicely with the main course they're making . . .

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Mise En Place & Kohetsu Blue #2 Addict, 240mm
Creminis, evoo, dried basil, dried oregano, red wine, 4x gelatinous beef stock, black pepper, salt, onions and crushed garlic. You might think such a beefy blade would be overkill on the mushrooms but it was a joy to use on them. It was fast, accurate and very easy to control.

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Sauteed
Mushrooms got the bulk of the mise shown above. Onions were sauteed only in the evoo, salt and pepper. Tomorrow I'll mix most of this with some wilted and squeezed-dry spinach, some parmesan and a few other cheeses, and bake it for about an hour.

Dinner tonight was a much simpler affair. Charcoal-grilled flank steak with a few leftovers as side dishes . . .

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On The Platter & Between The Raindrops
This oiled and seasoned slab spent about 10 minutes total over the coals. All direct, no covering, flipped and rotated about once per minute.

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Plated Up
With some of Wednesday's leftover bok choy and a small dish of leftover briami and okra from last night's dinner at Psistaria.
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Re: What did you cook today?

Post by ronnie_suburban »

Other than assembling that spinach casserole (above) to take with us tonight, this is the only thing I'll likely cook today. Saturday brunch omelet . . .

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Newsom Ham & Cheeses Omelet

Garnished with chive blossoms and flanked by a slice of toasted/buttered country boule from Hewn.
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Re: What did you cook today?

Post by d_rap »

Keep 'em coming Ronnie, I read these every day. Chive blossoms. Love it!
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Re: What did you cook today?

Post by ronnie_suburban »

d_rap wrote: Sat May 29, 2021 3:54 pm Chive blossoms. Love it!
Well, they keep coming so, as you'll see, I'll keep using them. Tonight, more Thai flavors. Recently got a new mortar & pestle, so I was inspired to wing it on a marinade for a chicken . . .

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Mise En Place & Kohetsu Blue #2 Addict, 240mm
In the mortar: Thai birds eye chiles, garlic, ginger, lemongrass, shallots and palm sugar in the center. Around the outside: fish sauce, oyster sauce, vegetable oil, salt, turmeric, soy sauce and a lime (later juiced).

Mashed everything in the mortar into a paste, then combined that paste with the other ingredients to create the marinade.

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Mortar
This banging new Thai mortar (and pestle, not pictured) are just what I needed. I was really happy with how much easier it was to paste everything together in this unit, compared to my older one(s). This one holds 3+ cups and is deep enough to bang away without having stuff spray out all over the place.

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Spatchcocked Chicken, Marinade & Tojiro Kitchen Shears
I love these shears but they're pretty new and this is the first time I can remember using them on poultry. They made quick work of spatchcocking this bird. The finished marinade (top left) awaits deployment. And I immediately made a mini batch of stock with the backbone (ended up with about a pint).

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Marinating
I let this marinate for about 6 hours, flipping the bird at the halfway point.

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Grilling
Figured a 3-zone fire was the way to go -- a small pile of lump on each side of the kettle and plenty of negative space at 12 and 6, so that the bird would cook evenly. It ended up taking about 30 minutes, covered, in the indirect space.

And of course, there was also side dishery . . .

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Baby Eggplants & Kohetsu Blue #2 Addict, 240mm
Sliced this into discs, then salted them (for about an hour) and patted them dry with a paper towel. After that, I roasted them in the oven, basting with the leftover sauce from last week's bok choy (reduced to a glaze, then fortified with fresh garlic and gochujang).

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Salad
A large assortment of all kinds of greens from Three Sisters Garden, campari tomatoes and some homemade 1002 Island dressing (standard, homemade thousand with some other business added).

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Plated Up
Charcoal-grilled chicken and roasted eggplant, garnished with -- what else? -- a confetti of chive blossoms! :D
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Re: What did you cook today?

Post by Jeff B »

Another great looking meal Ronnie. I haven't spatchcocked a chicken in a couple years, got one thawing now. ;)
If God wanted me to be a vegetarian he wouldn't have made animals taste so good.
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Re: What did you cook today?

Post by ronnie_suburban »

Jeff B wrote: Mon May 31, 2021 10:54 am Another great looking meal Ronnie. I haven't spatchcocked a chicken in a couple years, got one thawing now. ;)
It'd been a while for me, too. But you gotta mix it up everyone once in a while, right? After all, man does not live by chicken thighs alone! :lol:
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Re: What did you cook today?

Post by ronnie_suburban »

Had several ingredients leftover from the Saturday night spinach casserole, so I decided to omeletize them . . .

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Ricotta, Buffalo Mozzarella & Sauteed Onion Omelet
All the fillings were strictly Saturday spinach casserole surplus. Garnished with the seemingly never-ending supply of chives and chive blossoms.
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Re: What did you cook today?

Post by d_rap »

👍👍

I've seen it mentioned before, but great reminder on the 3-zone. I roast/smoke whole chickens on the Weber quite a bit, just use standard indirect, but I'll try that next time.
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Re: What did you cook today?

Post by ronnie_suburban »

d_rap wrote: Mon May 31, 2021 2:51 pm 👍👍

I've seen it mentioned before, but great reminder on the 3-zone. I roast/smoke whole chickens on the Weber quite a bit, just use standard indirect, but I'll try that next time.
It worked out pretty well. The dark meat and the white meat reached their respective temperatures at the same time, which is all you can really hope for.

Was thinking back to a recent video at Chinese Cooking Demystified's youtube channel when I decided I wanted to take another stab at smashed cucumber. I'd made it once last fall but seeing the video reminded me of how much I love the dish. This video actually focuses on Chinese drinking food, and in it, Steph suggests that it's a good accompaniment for beer. No doubt that's true but it was also just fine with my beverage of choice today: bubbly water.

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Mise En Place & Kohetsu Blue #2 Addict, 240mm
Cilantro, crushed garlic, cucumbers (ended up using 3), salt, msg, spicy chili crisp, soy sauce, mature black vinegar and toasted sesame oil.

Peel, split lengthwise and smash the cucumbers with a cleaver or heavy knife (the Addict worked just fine :wink:). I seeded most of the cukes but left a couple of portions with the seeds intact. After that, cut them into ~1" pieces and mix them up with everything else.

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Plated Up
I really do love this dish and it turned out great but I'm guessing it can be improved upon by letting the cucumbers sit in the salt for an hour or so, then draining them and proceeding with assembly. I'll give it a shot that way next time.

As for the rest of dinner, after not having it for a year and a half, somehow it was Part Two of our recent flank steak acquisition. Twice in four days. One might say that our weekend was flanked by flank steak :lol: (yeah, sorry about that) . . .

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Hot Off The Grill
Oiled, seasoned and grilled direct for about 10 minutes.

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Plated Up
Charcoal-grilled flank steak, smashed cucumber and leftover/reheated roasted eggplant from Sunday night's dinner.

Happy Monday! :)
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Re: What did you cook today?

Post by ronnie_suburban »

Quickie, after-work dinner tonight. My main goal was using up some really great fresh ricotta before it lost its magic . . .

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Assorted Grilled Sausages
Hot Italian sausage in the middle. The other two are different types of chicken sausages from Costco, neither of which really wowed me. But now, at least they're made and the family can lunch them up over the rest of the week.

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Caprese Salad
Normally I wouldn't bother with this with such average tomatoes but as I mentioned up top, this Calabro fresh ricotta is out of this world. I was too embarrassed to eat it directly out of the container with a spoon, so I decided this would be a good use for it. Garnished it with evoo, balsamic, flake salt and black pepper.

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Plated Up
Snausages, caprese salad and Mrs. Suburban's world-renowned roasted cauliflower.
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Re: What did you cook today?

Post by ronnie_suburban »

More quick and simple after-work fare. I've been leaning heavily on the grill lately but I guess that's been true for pretty much the last 30 years or so. However, right now, with longer work days and beautiful weather, grilling assures that the cooking is quick, the clean-up is a breeze, and after a day in front of my screen, it's an absolute pleasure to sit outside from the beginning of the cook to the end . . .

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Ribeyes
Righteous steaks from my butcher's shop. Seasoned, oiled and ready for the grill. Really cannot get enough of the Manale spice rub, which has become my go-to over the past few months. I initially made it as part of a copycat recipe for BBQ shrimp from Pascal's Manale but it's found a permanent home in our kitchen.

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Grilling
These were some big steaks. I made two to feed three of us. After the initial, direct marking over the coals, these took about 12 minutes, covered, on the indirect side to finish. That's quite a bit longer than usual but again, these were massive cuts.

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Plated Up
With sauteed broccolini (evoo, garlic, red chile flakes, salt, black pepper and fresh lemon juice). The boyo and I finished off the end of the leftover smashed cucumber, too.
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Re: What did you cook today?

Post by ronnie_suburban »

Still very much in the honeymoon stage with my new mortar & pestle, so more Thai tonight . . .

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Som Tum
Garlic, salt-dried shrimp, Thai birds eye chiles, palm sugar, lime wedges and roasted peanuts.

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Paste
Yes, I know it's a poor workman who blames his tools but I can honestly say my previous difficulties with this age-old device seem to have had more to do with the small size and too-smooth surface texture of the unit I recently retired.

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Pad Ka-Prao Mise En Place & Kurosaki HAP40 Gyuto, 210mm
In the mortar: garlic, Thai birds eye chiles and shallots. Around the exterior: Thai basil, coarsely ground pork, soy sauce, dark sweet soy sauce, oyster sauce, Golden Mountain, fish sauce and green beans.

Just getting started with this knife, which is a serious departure from any other knife I own profile-wise. Granted, I didn't do a lot of cutting today but I was surprised by what a seamless transition it was to this tip-style. Looking forward to using it more and seeing how it differs over the long run.

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More Mortarings
This round: garlic, shallots and Thai birds eye chiles.

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Hot, Aromatic Paste
This took about 5 minutes and it was a fine way to blow off some workday steam! :lol:

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Plated Up
With some brown jasmine rice from the rice cooker.
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Re: What did you cook today?

Post by ronnie_suburban »

Received some beautiful chicken of the woods mushrooms, had a ribeye in the freezer and had some green beans that were only about half-green (but still firm), so decided on a stir fry . . .

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Chicken Of The Woods
Very meaty and firm specimens. Was happy to have them but knew I'd have to beat them down a bit to get them to a palatable state (for me).

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Mise En Place & Kurosaki HAP40 Gyuto, 210mm
Brownish green beans, sliced garlic, ground Sichuan peppercorns, white pepper, purple spring onions, oyster sauce, Shaoxing wine, dark soy sauce, soy sauce, peanut oil and ribeye steak.

I pre-cooked the mushrooms in a little peanut oil, some Shaoxing wine and a bit of the sliced garlic to soften them up and bring out their meatiness. From there, I built the rest of the stir fry, starting by searing the meat, then removing it until the very end. That approach worked out well.

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Platter
As you can probably see from the texture, I ended up adding a small, 1T cornstarch slurry to thicken the sauce.

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Plated Up
In addition to garnishing with chives and chive blossoms, I also added a few blobs of spicy chili crisp to my servings (yes, I had seconds!). Was really pleased using the chicken of the woods in this application. After I pre-cooked them, they were delicious on their own but this ended up being a fun and tasty way to use them. To the bite, they were nearly as meaty as the ribeye, which was very satisfying. Next time, I'll probably omit the meat entirely (and maybe sub in some tofu).

edits: typos
Last edited by ronnie_suburban on Sun Jun 06, 2021 12:21 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: What did you cook today?

Post by d_rap »

Really hungry and just starting to cook here. If you weren't 2000 miles away I would ask you if you had any leftovers. Some of my favorite mushrooms Ronnie, wow that looks great.

By the way glad to see I'm not the only one who jumped on Kurosaki-san's latest. Bunka on my end, eager to hear your thoughts on the gyuto.
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Re: What did you cook today?

Post by Altadan »

"I built the rest of the stir fry, starting by searing the meat, then removing it until the very end. That approach worked out well."

I find the same is true for me. I've been back at the wok lately, to the chagrin of my eldest and the joy of us parents. I just love the warm-yet-crunchy veg, with the soy-garlic-ginger pallet!
Your everything looks superb, Ronnie, as usual ;-)
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