What are you eating?

[mamascarlatti]

Homemade fish pie, the bechamel made with fish stock, white wine and cream over prawns and whitef ish, plenty of parsely and capers, topped with mashed potatoes. Serve with roast pumpkin and garlic tossed spianch. Ambrosial.

[Harpo]

Well tonight, a special treat! 

Osso Buco from Cuisine Solutions (below right) - braised veal shanks w/ tomatoes, onions, carrots, and white wine - just need to heat the dish and plenty of sauce to add a pasta of your choice; tonight Whole Wheat Orzo, along w/ Sauteed Spinach w/ Olive Oil & Toasted Pine Nuts (below, left) - wine for the night, Artesa Pinot Noir 2007 from the Carneros region of California - easy and delicious!   

P.S. - Congrats to my cook of the night - Susan (a.k.a. Harpo) - 


 
[/quote

The spinach recipe was my own invention!   

[mahler10th]

Yes, well, the can get as many fair trade certificates for this as they want, but they're still running a dodgy sideline with the origin of their palm oil.
Who cares?  It's a nice munch.   

[Sergeant Rock]

We had a marvelous meal tonight which Mrs. Rock started last night. She roasted cardamom pods, cinnamon, cloves, corriander seeds, fennel seeds and bay leaves and then ground the mix.  Dissolved saffron in boiling water, added the spice mix plus crushed garlic and ginger, lemon juice and salt. Used that as a marinade for a whole chicken which spent the next 20 hours in the fridge. I grilled the bird using indirect heat on a charcoal Weber for one and half hours. Voila, tandoori chicken!...or as close to tandoori chicken as we'll get in this part of Germany. Served with rice and asparagus. Drank a local Sekt (German champagne).

Sarge

[sospiro]

We had a marvelous meal tonight which Mrs. Rock started last night. She ground cardamom pods, cinnamon, cloves, corriander seeds, fennel seeds and bay leaves and then roasted the mix.  Dissolved saffron in boiling water, added the spice mix plus crushed garlic and ginger, lemon juice and salt. Used that as a marinade for a whole chicken which spent the next 20 hours in the fridge. I grilled the bird using indirect heat on a charcoal Weber for one and half hours. Voila, tandoori chicken!...or as close to tandoori chicken as we'll get in this part of Germany. Served with rice and asparagus. Drank a local Sekt (German champagne).

Sarge

I am so jealous - that sounds absolutely amazing! And has made me feel very hungry. I ate my nice but boring mixed salad a long time ago.

[Sergeant Rock]

I am so jealous - that sounds absolutely amazing! And has made me feel very hungry. I ate my nice but boring mixed salad a long time ago.

I don't want to increase your jealousy, but I have to say it was incredibly good. I love the taste of saffron.

Sarge

[sospiro]

I don't want to increase your jealousy, but I have to say it was incredibly good. I love the taste of saffron.

Sarge

Please don't torment me! Yes, saffron is one of those almost mystical ingredients. Amazing how a few little red strands can produce such a special flavour.

Going to have a cup of this & watch the golf. Keeping my fingers crossed for Lee Westwood.

[toledobass]

Ordered fish and chips for lunch yesterday.  I don't know why I do that to myself....I always have high hopes for the dish but I can't remember the last time I had decent fish and chips....sort of the same thing with biscuits and gravy.

Any dishes like that for you? 

Allan

[toledobass]

I was gonna make something for lunch but screw it....imma go out and get some indian food,  I'll report back with what I devour.

Allan

[DavidW]

I was gonna make something for lunch but screw it....imma go out and get some indian food,  I'll report back with what I devour.

Allan

I wish I could do that, I miss indian food.

[toledobass]

holy wow...ate waaaay too much..

samosa, pakora, navratan korma, aloo gobi, daal, malai kofta, then kulfi and masala tea for dessert.

[Sergeant Rock]

holy wow...ate waaaay too much..

samosa, pakora, navratan korma, aloo gobi, daal, malai kofta, then kulfi and masala tea for dessert.

Mrs. Rock makes a great aloo gobi...hmmmm, I'll have to talk her into making Indian this weekend.

Sarge

[Sergeant Rock]

We've been eating particularly well the last few days. And I've been getting my fill of saffron 

Friday night before the Rott concert in Frankfurt we ate at a fine Italian restaurant next to the Alte Oper. We had a salad of scallops (grilled and smokey tasting) and Feldsalat (lamb's lettuce) in a dressing of balsamico and rhaspberry vinegar, walnut oil. Then ravioli stuffed with ricotta and spinach in a saffron cream sauce. Drank the house red.

Last night Mrs. Rock made pangasius filets in a bear's garlic/saffron cream sauce, steamed Kohlrabi (cabbage turnip) and a rice salad. Drank a 2008 Riesling from Wittmann (a great Rheinhessen winery located in Westhofen, a few miles west of us).

Tonight Mrs Rock is making me aloo gobi    and she's prepared another tandoori chicken I'll grill. I'd be happy if this becomes a Sunday tradition.

Sarge

[abidoful]

Nothing at the moment, but today;
- two hamburgers
- two pizza's
- a half an orange and some cookies

[SonicMan46]

Well, tonight going back to the Incan culture for our dinner - an ancient grain from South America - Quinoa
- brand name shown below - recipe w/ stuff peppers on the box - very vegetarian and low in calories - quite delicious - (warning - just have half the recipe!) 

[Sergeant Rock]

It's Spargel (asparagus) season in Germany. Mrs. Rock and I have already consumed 10 kilograms (8 white, 2 green). Here's a video on the production and consumption of the fabulous vegetable:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWsxFDiBSRY&feature=digest


Sarge

[jlaurson]

Well, tonight going back to the Incan culture for our dinner - an ancient grain from South America - Quinoa
- brand name shown below - recipe w/ stuff peppers on the box - very vegetarian and low in calories - quite delicious - (warning - just have half the recipe!) 

Go search for "Quinoa" and "David Lynch" on YouTube, you won't regret it!!!

@Sarge: Did some Spargel in Vienna the night before last. Followed by Spanferkel chops. Asks the waiter: "Will you need a steak knife". Responds I: "I hope not."

I didn't, but only by one or two grades of dryness... it was good, but disappointing. Not as disappointing though as when one of my favorite restaurants used that particularly nasty, yellow "Curry" powder in its curry-chicken salad appetizer. That was downright appalling. Is that stuff just that nasty in Germany or everywhere in the world?  I don't recall stumbling upon that in DC, ever.

At home I only eat rice... a vow until I have renovated (completely stripped and re-done) the kitchen. (Might also help being able to afford that project.)
But rice isn't just rice.

Today's procedure:

liberal amount of butter and olive oil in small pan.
add lots of chopped spring onions, also chopped ginger, chopped garlic
eventually add roughly half a cup of rice, add ground coriander, lots of turmeric, liberal amount of cinnamon, ground chili pepper.
add stock (beef best, but veggie is fine, too), water, and (though not necessary, but I did:) Ayran (a salted Turkish Yoghurt drink).
turn down to the lowest flame, let simmer until liquids are gone (but rice not dry).
Add freshly cut mint and chopped cilantro and mix with a few spoons of yoghurt to consume immediately.

[Sergeant Rock]

@Sarge: Did some Spargel in Vienna the night before last. Followed by Spanferkel chops. Asks the waiter: "Will you need a steak knife". Responds I: "I hope not."

Ever since Babe I've had tremendous guilt whenever I've eaten Spanferkel..."I weep for you, I deeply sympathize." But like the Walrus, I simply cry until my plate is clean    Well, it's their fault...they shouldn't be so damn tasty.

But rice isn't just rice....Today's procedure

That sounds incredibly good. I'll have to try it.

Sarge

[jlaurson]

Well, it's their fault...they shouldn't be so damn tasty.

Precisement!

That sounds incredibly good. I'll have to try it.

The important thing is not to get bogged down with recipes and to switch and substitute matters.

Only the onions, the stock, the turmeric, and the cinnamon (apart from the rice, obviously) I would say are essential. Maybe also the ginger.

But then instead of yoghurt afterwards, one can add coconut milk during the cooking. (Which takes matters closer to an East Asian curry.)

Any vegetable (in small quantities could be added and sauteed instead of or with the onions/spring onions/garlic. Leave out spices, add others. Right now I've added carrots and dried mango powder, but left some other ingredients out. Fresh chilies instead of powder or instead of the veggies. Fish stock instead of other stock etc. etc....

That way, the dish becomes a petri-dish of sorts; an experimental spice-lab in which one can track and trace what one likes particularly, and in what combinations... and then can extrapolate for real, more complicated food.

[Sergeant Rock]

The important thing is not to get bogged down with recipes and to switch and substitute matters.

Exactly. Mrs. Rock and I are both experimenters, very often going off the beaten recipe path.

We're having rice tonight but not yours: shrimp risotto with fried Spargel on the side. Drinking a 2008 Sicilian white, part of which went into the pot.

Sarge