What did you cook today?

[ronnie_suburban]

Lovely looking Thai curry Ronnie! It reminded me that I think I'm going to have to mail order a care package from import Thai food to get my hands on this type of stuff. I've been really struggling to find shops that have them in Boston, which I didn't predict.

My guess is that you might do well on some Thai ingredients at H-Mart (581 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139). Even though it's Korean-focused, the one near my office has quite a few Thai staples, including a variety of fish sauces, many of the Maesri pastes and even those young green peppercorns. That's also where I got the poached bamboo shoots, and I've purchased Thai basil there a number of times, as well. In lieu of that, ImportFood.com, definitely has a great selection, reasonable prices and they ship promptly.

I'm glad you're getting fun out of the YW, too. It looks like a phenominal knife.

Very much enjoying it so far and hope to be using it/cooking more this week. With work the way it is right now, that could go either way.

My dinner tonight was a chirashi bowl with salmon, seared tuna, avocado, daikon (my katsuramuki still sucks...) and the usual condiments. Although I will say I'm really starting to love my white soy sauce with sashimi/sushi dishes - more subtle flavours than the standard Ohsawa. Less overpowering. Used the Shibata R2 whilst I wait for my yanagiba, such a fantastic gyuto for doing double duty as a slicer. And that Bernzomatic... still definitely in the honeymoon period with that one.

Absolutely gorgeous plate and I'm sure that chirashi bowl tasted as fine as it looked. Really nice!

[Chappychap]

My guess is that you might do well on some Thai ingredients at H-Mart (581 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139). Even though it's Korean-focused, the one near my office has quite a few Thai staples, including a variety of fish sauces, many of the Maesri pastes and even those young green peppercorns. That's also where I got the poached bamboo shoots, and I've purchased Thai basil there a number of times, as well. In lieu of that, ImportFood.com, definitely has a great selection, reasonable prices and they ship promptly.

Thanks Ronnie, appreciate you taking the time to offer the tip. You're right, I think that's my best shot. Hopefully you'll be seeing upgraded Maesri curries here soon! Thanks again.

[Chappychap]

Inaugural voyage with the new range tonight! It's a duel fuel Cafe 30". Couldn't be happier. And what better way to welcome it to the kitchen than with a Shibata 240, a pasta puttanesca and a side of spinach with crispy garlic.* I really love the six burner configuration. I'm in love.

As Ronnie says, Happy Monday!

*Ok well maybe a better way to welcome it might have been with the wok... but I need to go to H Mart

[ronnie_suburban]

Inaugural voyage with the new range tonight! It's a duel fuel Cafe 30". Couldn't be happier. And what better way to welcome it to the kitchen than with a Shibata 240, a pasta puttanesca and a side of spinach with crispy garlic.* I really love the six burner configuration. I'm in love.

As Ronnie says, Happy Monday!

Congrats! That's a really nice unit and I can only imagine how thrilled you must be to finally have it. That pasta looks pretty damned good! And yes, now the provisioning can begin in earnest!

Mrs. Suburban and I threw this one together pretty quickly after I got home from work. All in all, not a bad outcome. First up, side dishery . . .


Mise En Place & Konosuke YW White #2 Gyuto, 210mm
Cremini mushrooms, sliced garlic, scallions, veg oil, 4x gelatinous chicken stock, black bean garlic sauce and shoyu (ended up not using this).

Just a quick, two-step stir fry, blistering the scallions first, then adding the mushrooms. Later, when they started to give off their moisture, I added the garlic/black bean sauce and the stock. Added the garlic at various stages along the way, which gave it some multi-dimensionality. Was going to add shoyu at this point but after a taste, I decided that the salt was right on the money.

There were also steaks . . .


NY Strips, Grilling


On The Platter


Plated Up
Charcoal-grilled NY strip steaks with stir-fried mushrooms & scallions and esquites.


Interior Shot
Always a relief when I know that I didn't ruin them.

As Chappy says, Happy Monday!

[Chappychap]

It's good to be back

[Jeff B]

Really nice range Chappy, I'm jealous! I need my 22yr old range to crap out.

[ronnie_suburban]

It's good to be back

Hell yeah. Looks like you're rocking that Newquist. Really nice. How's that working out on the new range?

Another night at the grill (and the wok) yielded some tasty results. Once again, 'tis the season for conehead cabbage . . .


Conehead Cabbage
I think it's from France.


Cabbage Mise En Place & Yu Kurosaki VG10 Fujin Gyuto, 210mm
Conehead cabbage, slivered garlic, salt, black pepper, black pepper sauce and fried shallot/garlic oil.

Hot and fast in the wok until wilted and tender but not mushy. Added the garlic along the way to layer its flavor, and the black pepper sauce at the very end. Was making a bed for our main course . . .


Shrimps On The Barbie (yeah, couldn't help myself)
U-12 shrimp that I peeled (making stock with the shells), oiled and seasoned in one of my homemade rubs. By the time I put the last one down over the coals, the first one was ready to flip. I think these spent about 3 minutes cooking directly over the coals.


On The Platter
Grilled Shrimp Over Stir-Fried Conehead Cabbage.


Plated Up
Garnished with chives (from our garden), homemade chili oil and served with some of yesterday's mushroom & scallion mix.

[Chappychap]

Hell yeah. Looks like you're rocking that Newquist. Really nice. How's that working out on the new range?

Yeah, it was the first night back with the round bottom wok tonight. Honestly I'd made peace with not being able to use it again given the uncertainty over whether I'd be able to switch to gas, so it was almost a rather emotional reunion! And I am fully bought in on round bottom vs flat, tonight reminded me of that too.

This is made possible by that beefy BTU flame at the front left. 21k BTU. Honestly if the range's only defining feature was that, I'd be a very happy chappy. But I love the six burner configuration too - it definitely encourages me to be bolder with adding/tweaking components to dishes and challenge myself. For example last night with the puttanesca, it was no big deal to put 6" fry pan on the middle burner at a pretty late stage and do crispy garlic + some infused oil to go with the spinach. Turned out to be a big upgrade on the standard sauteed spinach + garlic I'd usually have done, due to the texture.

Speaking of interesting components, you seem to be using the grill almost every night at the moment! Good for you. But I have to ask, how long does it take to fire it up every night?

[ronnie_suburban]

. . . And I am fully bought in on round bottom vs flat, tonight reminded me of that too.

Yeah, me too though I cannot produce one rational reason for it. That said, you'll be proud of me for giving away yet another wok over the weekend. A friend had none, so I gave her one of my flat-bottoms and she's already cooked on it, and loves it. I think I'm down to 4 or 5 now.

This is made possible by that beefy BTU flame at the front left. 21k BTU. Honestly if the range's only defining feature was that, I'd be a very happy chappy. But I love the six burner configuration too - it definitely encourages me to be bolder with adding/tweaking components to dishes and challenge myself. For example last night with the puttanesca, it was no big deal to put 6" fry pan on the middle burner at a pretty late stage and do crispy garlic + some infused oil to go with the spinach. Turned out to be a big upgrade on the standard sauteed spinach + garlic I'd usually have done, due to the texture.

Yes. It's great having those BTUs there when you want/need them. It has a huge impact on your food. As much as there is that separates professional cooks from home cooks, I think that cooking with high heat is one of the main things that home cooks don't/can't do often enough.

Speaking of interesting components, you seem to be using the grill almost every night at the moment! Good for you. But I have to ask, how long does it take to fire it up every night?

Yeah, this time of year, especially as busy as I've been at work lately, it's truly a gift having a great charcoal grill. It's usually no more than 10-15 minutes from ignition to cooking. I use lump charcoal -- never briquettes -- in a standard chimney. It lights fast, burns quickly and is ready to dump onto the charcoal grate in no time. From there, I often let the cooking grates heat up for a few minutes before I start cooking. Sometimes not, though. It really depends on if I'm cooking direct or indirect. For indirect, getting the cooking grates hot before cooking isn't necessary.

[ronnie_suburban]

Wednesday night, pre-CSA fridge clean-out led to the rather cheezy sounding Stir Fry Four Flavors, which sounds like it would fit right in on the menu at some divey restaurant of dubious quality. Well, if you want to master the wok . . . definitely do not ask me! But I am having fun with it, making some half-decent food and keeping the family fed/amused along the way . . .


Mise En Place & Konosuke YW White #2 Gyuto, 210mm
Leftover grilling sausages, leftover cevaps, fermented black beans, minced garlic, Japanese eggplant, shaoxing cooking wine, soy sauce, veg oil, green beans, scallion tops, purple & white cauliflower and scallion bottoms.

At first, I planned on just cooking everything together but when I stopped to consider just how much was there, I decided that was a bad idea. So, I cooked things in rapid-fire shifts, varying the flavors slightly for each of the main ingredients.


The Four Flavors
Sausages with garlic and scallion bottoms, green beans with fermented black beans and garlic, eggplant with shaoxing wine, garlic and black vinegar (not pictured above) and cauliflower with garlic and 4x gelatinous chicken stock (also not pictured above).


Plated Up
Kind of a goofy scheme but it ended up being really tasty. The four flavors were all distinctive and went together well.

[ronnie_suburban]

More beef over here tonight, this time skirt steaks from a local grocery chain. This is my favorite cut they sell and pretty much the only beef I ever buy there. First up, though, getting RID of some more CSA items . . .


Cucumbers & Konosuke YW White #2 Gyuto, 210mm
Peeled, seeded, sliced and salted. Once drained, I combined these with some Sichuan-style sauce I had leftover from a batch of poached chicken I made last week.


Baby Artichokes & Konosuke YW White #2 Gyuto, 210mm
Once trimmed down, there wasn't a whole lot here but they sure were taking up a lot of room in the fridge, so it was great to get rid of them.


Sauteed Baby Artichokes
Evoo, lemon juice, garlic, salt and black pepper. Steamed them in the lemon juice and a touch of water until they were tender, then finished them with the other ingredients before service. There were a few on which I could have removed a few more of the outer leaves but overall, these were tender and delicious.


On The Platter
Charcoal-grilled skirt steaks with Manale spice mix.


Plated Up
Skirt steak, Sichuan-style cucumber salad and sauteed baby artichokes.


Interior Shot
Juicy!

[ronnie_suburban]

Weekly beans have kind of slipped into ~monthly beans but decided to make a pot today, mainly because I was working from home and was in the mood to make/eat them . . .


Rancho Gordo Pinto Beans
Auto-focus on my camera kept going for the face on the label, as if it were a real face!


Mise En Place & Yu Kurosaki AS Fujin Gyuto, 240mm
Serranos, jalapenos & bay leaf, salt, onion, evoo, minced garlic, black pepper and pinto beans.

I had time, so I soaked the beans, and then cooked them in the soaking water. When I don't have time, I don't bother soaking them, though they take a bit longer to cook when they're not soaked. Fresh peppers get slitted and go into the simmer whole. That's 2 tsp of Morton kosher salt, which seems like the perfect amount of salt for a pound of beans that aren't being started with some form of cured meat.

Wanted to cook a bit more but decided to keep it super simple, so went with some grilled burgers (and a leftover piece of sausage) . . .


On The Platter
Charcoal-grilled cheddar/American cheeseburgers and a section of Ukrainian kielbasa.


Plated Up
Grilled double-cheeseburger on a toasted sesame seed bun with ~monthly pinto beans, a blob of the weekly slaw and some of the season's first cherry tomatoes from our garden. Burger was condimented with ketchup, yellow mustard, kewpie mayo, grilled onions, shredded romaine and thin slices of homemade jalapeno dill pickles.

[Chappychap]

Ronnie... you're killing me with all this delicious looking
grilled meat. If you keep on like this, I'm pretty sure a konro grill is going to happen.

[Jeff B]

Ronnie... you're killing me with all this delicious looking
grilled meat. If you keep on like this, I'm pretty sure a konro grill is going to happen.

Amazing how Ronnie can make the simplest of meals look gourmet!

[ronnie_suburban]

Ronnie... you're killing me with all this delicious looking
grilled meat. If you keep on like this, I'm pretty sure a konro grill is going to happen.

Amazing how Ronnie can make the simplest of meals look gourmet!

Thanks, guys. It's the camera, I assure you. It could even make my mom's cooking look good! (Mom, if you're reading this, I love you but we both know that cooking just isn't your bag)

I spent a large portion of the day away from home, so was glad to have some Costco smoked/sous vide pork belly in the deep reaches of my fridge. Not the greatest product but good enough and only in need of a brief sear to prepare it. Since I had a nice collection of leftover veg on hand (from the Four Flavors dinner a few days ago), the belly made for nice topping. It rendered quite a bit of fat, as belly is wont to do, so I took the opportunity to sear off some onions in the fat and add them in, the only part of our dinner that was only cooked once . . .


Plated Up
Pan-seared smoked/sous vide pork belly over a bed of leftover vegetables (green beans, eggplant, cauliflower) and some freshly seared onions. Garnished with scallion tops. That's some leftover Sichuan-style cucumber salad riding shotgun.

[ronnie_suburban]

Started out the day with yet another Sunday, fridge-clean-up omelet . . .


Leftover Grilling Sausage, Grilled Onions & Cheddar Omelet
Garnished with chives and flanked by a buttered piece of toasted baguette.

After that, it was dinner prep for a meal that's usually more of a fall staple around here but we have a forest of fresh oregano in the garden and figured that leg of lamb would be a good way to use some of it up . . .


Seasoning Paste Mise En Place & Yu Kurosaki AS Fujin Gyuto, 240mm
Fresh oregano, minced garlic, dried oregano (also from our garden), salt, black pepper and evoo.


Butterflied Leg Of Lamb & Seasoning Paste
Made a paste and covered the entire inner side of the lamb. The leg was already boneless but I flayed it out a bit further to maximize the surface area for the paste.


Seasoned, Rolled, Trussed, Oiled & Seasoned Again
Once I applied the paste fully to the inner side of the lamb, I rolled it and trussed it. From there, another light coating of evoo and some additional seasoning with salt, black pepper and dried oregano. Then, into a 275F oven.

With the lamb in oven, next up was side dishery; spinach-feta casserole . . .


Casserole Mise En Place & Yu Kurosaki AS Fujin Gyuto, 240mm
Sauteed yellow & red onion, lemon, salt, black pepper, evoo, wilted, squeezed & drained spinach, homegrown dried oregano, minced garlic, store-bought dried oregano, yogurt and feta cheese.

Decided to use a combo of dried oreganos here. I wasn't sure I had enough of the dried homegrown and I didn't want to use fresh because it's very tough texturally. No fresh dill, so I just left it out. Mixed all this in the stand mixer.


Spinach-Feta Casserole
Baked for 60 minutes @ 350F, uncovered for the final 30.

Also threw together a mini-tomato salad with some tomatoes from our CSA and some tomatoes and basil from our garden . . .


Mini-Tomato Salad
Evoo, balsamic, salt, black pepper and fresh basil.


Garlic & Oregano Oven-Roasted Leg Of Lamb
Baked it for ~2.5 hours @ 275 F, until it reached 125F internal, then I blasted it for 6 minutes @ 450F convection to finalize the exterior crust.


Plated Up
A nice, thick slab of lamb and some of the sides. Felt good to incorporate some items from our garden.

[ronnie_suburban]

Super-quick, after work dinner tonight. Stopped at a Chinese market on the way home for some coarsely ground pork, and threw together a rapid-fire pad ka-prao . . .


Plated Up
Topped with a frizzle egg and accompanied by a duo of leftover salads -- mushroom and mini-tomato.


Yolk
A closer look. Of the dozen or so times I've made this dish in the past year, this was definitely my most successful attempt. 50/50 ratio of light soy sauce and Golden Mountain was dialed in just right, and the Healthy Boy fish sauce was the perfect call.

Happy Monday!

[ronnie_suburban]

Day 10 in a row of cooking dinner. I think that's a personal best. I'll be taking a few days off from cooking starting tomorrow, so I wanted to use up some things while I was able to . . .

Had a sizable chunk of lamb left from Sunday's dinner, so decided to make hash . . .


Lamb Hash Mise En Place & Makoto AS Ryusei Gyuto, 210mm
Yellow onion, Dakota Ruby potatoes (soaking in water to prevent oxidation), salt, black pepper, fried shallot & garlic oil, heavy whipping cream and leftover leg of lamb.

Fried the potatoes in some of the oil, then added the onions and seasoned it up. Once everything had seared and softened, I added a splash of the heavy cream to get everything melded nicely -- a tip shared with me by a friend many years ago. At the very end, I tossed in the lamb just until it was warm, then killed the heat and offloaded the hash to a platter. Back to this in a moment.

Also had a pound of shiitakes that were approaching 'now or never' status . . .


Shiitakes & Makoto AS Ryusei Gyuto, 210mm



Sauteed Shiitakes
Improvised my way into a very tasty treatment that included sake, shoyu, homemade shrimp stock, minced garlic, salt and black pepper. Garnished with chives.

Also wanted to make use of some perfectly ripe Cherokee Purple tomatoes that I picked from our garden when I got home from work today . . .


Cherokee Purple Tomatoes
Evoo, balsamic, salt, black pepper and basil from our garden.

Now, back to that hash . . .


On The Platter
Lamb hash, garnished with scallion tops.


Plated Up
We were definitely slinging some hash at Chez Suburban tonight!

[ronnie_suburban]

After three whole days of not cooking at all, I felt a bit like Gene Autry this morning . . .



A few aging leftovers, omeletized . . .


Leftover Grilled Ukrainian Kielbasa, Grilled Onions & Cheeses Omelet
Garnished with chives and served up with some sliced tomato from our garden (variety unknown) and some toasted and buttered country batard from Middlebrow Bungalow.

[d_rap]

Always good to be reminded that Aerosmith didn't coin that expression.

Food looks great as always.