Friday May 3, 2013

Dinner for 2

Thai Noodles

Well I burried my mom yesterday, so again my heart just wasn't into cooking Friday Night Dinner.  I know that this is going to be a tough year without her but I am not planning on going on about it on my blog.  I promise not to constantly bring you readers down.

I decided on a Thai noodle dish with some seafood.  I am making some Thai food this weekend for a friends baby shower.  The word is out with the women I swim with that I cook great food.  The mother to be has put in a request for Thai at her baby shower so in planning for that, I decided to cook Thai for the Hubby and I.  I love Thai food and as long as you spend some time prepping everything it is super easy to cook up and is done in no time at all.
  

 Lots of vegetables, capsicum, broccoli and snow peas, with shrimp and noodles in a spicy Thai sauce topped with fresh coriander.  YUMMY!

Friday April 26, 2013

Dinner for 2

Mixed Mushroom Risotto with Garlic, Lemon & Sage Oil

Well I had to get back at it.  The unexpected loss of my Mom last week has put a damper on everything in my life and I really haven't cooked any meals since the 17th.  Too sad.  However, the show must go on as they say and my mom was very proud of my passion for food and has been encouraging me to find the funds for culinary school.  Although she wasn't much of an adventurous eater she did love what I cooked when it was in her preferred flavour profile.

One of the foods I love is risotto.  Particularly mushroom risottos.  I have never tried to make risotto at home so this seemed like a good time to give it a go.  After all I intended to make it a couple weeks back but the ice storm through a wrench in my plans.

Found this recipe that seemed yummy enough.

I forgot to purchase parsley and the plant growing in the pot in my kitchen is certainly looking dead so I had to leave it out.

It wasn't as difficult to make as I thought but it seemed a little over cooked and heavy.  I think there is a fine line to master with this dish.  I will need more practice.

The Garlic, lemon, sage oil on the top was a fantastic flavour.  I think with practice this will become a favourite.

The best bits about looking at old photos and telling old stories is remembering all those fantastic things my mother did that shaped me as a person. 

Thanks Mom for helping to shape me into who I am.  I will miss you always XO

Friday April 19, 2013

Cancelled

As you may have noticed I am catching up all my Friday Night Dinners from the notes I took last year. I hope to be up to date shortly and able to go back to the original plan of posting weekly. Up until today it has been fun.  This cancelled Friday Night Dinner is still hard for me to even think about let alone talk about.  Here it goes anyway.

I have had to cancel my plans this Friday my mother died unexpectedly on April 17th, just two days ago.  None of my sisters or I have been able to make the drive to go see my Dad yet so I am off right after I dropped the kids at school.  I need to see him and make sure he is okay.  I just can't believe this has happened.

It was nice to go and spend the day with my Dad.  I helped make some arrangements at the funeral home for next week.  I made sure he had eaten dinner tonight and I have driven back home to be with my family.  

My mother was a strong supporter of my dabbling in the cullinary world.  She wanted me to go to culinary school and see how far I could go.   She never liked anything spicy, which I love, but she was willing to try new things and believed I had talent.  I was just cooking for her a few weeks ago.  I am so happy she loved that last meal I had cooked for her. I am having a hard time coming to terms with the fact that she is gone.  

Miss you XO

Friday April 12, 2013

Dinner for 1

My husband is out of town again tonight so there is no dinner party planned.  I have done them without him, actually his being away really is what gave birth to this whole idea, but it has been a crazy week so I decided just to do dinner for myself.  I was planning on Risotto.  I love risotto but I have never made it.  I believe it requires a lot of practice to get it right so I decided to attempt it for me in case it all goes pear shaped.

Turns out the weather went pear shaped and we have had a terrible ice storm.  The power is back on at my home but I have no desire to venture out to pick up mushrooms and abboro rice so it is onto Plan B.

Plan B:  Look in the fridge and cook something tasty with what I find.  Okay so I have some chowmein noodles in the fridge lets start there. What I came up with will feed way more than 1 but left over noodle dishes always get eaten up in my house.

1 package of chow mein noodles soaked in boiling water and drained according to package directions.

Now what else:

3 Tbsp minced garlic

3 Tbsp grated ginger

4 purple carrots julienne

an equal amount of wombok cabbage finely sliced

1 1/2 red peppers finely sliced

1 bunch of green onions, washed trimmed and cut in half then cut to the length of the carrots 

In the wok I heated 1 1/2 Tbsp of peanut oil and 1/2 Tbsp toasted sesame oil then I added in the garlic and ginger and stir fried until fragrant.

I then added the vegetables and stir fried for about 2 minutes.

Add 2 Tbsp of Sake, reduce heat and cover for about 2 minutes until vegetables are tender crisp.

Uncover and increase the heat again, add sauce (ingredients below) and stir constantly until the sauce thickens.  Toss in noodles and heat through. 

Sauce

2 cups vegetable broth

6 Tbsp oyster sauce

3 Tbsp soy sauce

2 Tbsp Sake

2 tsp toasted sesame oil

1 tsp sugar

1 1/2 Tbsp corn starch

ground pepper

It TASTES way BETTER than it LOOKs

The vegetables looked great when cooked but the addition of the sauce allowed the colour of the purple carrots to blend with the sauce.  This resulted in a weird grey colour.  Then when I tossed in the yellow noodles it changed to a most unappealing grey/green colour.

EXCELLENT FLAVOURS!!!! Too bad it looks so awful.  I am glad I am only serving this to myself.

NOTE TO SELF:  Purple carrots are to be eaten raw or steamed and never added to sauce.  

Always good to learn new things.

  

Friday April 5, 2013

Dinner for 10

Cold marinated Peanuts
Spring Rolls
Rainbow Beef Lettuce Cups
Spring Onion Lamb
Spicy Stir Fried Chicken with Fresh vegetables
Golden Scallions and Ginger Scallops
Stir Fried Curry Celery
Flash Cooked Bean Sprouts
Seared baby Bok Choy
Noodles in Black Bean Sauce

My younger sister and her wonderful family live only 45 minutes away and until tonight had never been to a Friday Night Dinner.  How does that happen?  Busy schedules of active children mostly.  We are making it right tonight with a huge Chinese feast for us all to eat.  I am going to be introducing her children to more authentic Chinese food.

That was the best laid plans of course.  I had a meeting today that went extra long, then I had to get the shopping done.  That ment very little prep had been completed by the time my guests arrived.  Being in constant pain from a crazy elbow injury wasn't helping either.  I managed to get the appetizers out quickly and they were great but my young neice didn't eat any of them so she was totally starving.  A little snack from the pantry helped tie her over until I could start getting out the main food

Marinated peanuts.  I loved them.

Handmade spring rolls.  Yummy!

I then served the beef cups to hold everyone else over until I could finish the rest of the dishes.

Just scoop a little of this in a piece of lettuce, roll it up and stuff it in your gob.
 
A LOT later than planned everything else was served and everyone was eating happily.  My young niece even tried lamb and liked it.

Lamb

Chicken

Scallops

 

 Curried Celery

 Sprouts, these are fantastic.

 Bok Choy, always a favourite.

Noodles with Black Bean Sauce.  Tasty.!

All in all it was a fantastic evening with fantastic company.  Way better than any take away any day. 

Planning for a future dinner with this crew will include having my nephew (an enthusiastic home cook) working with me. 

Sources:  The recipes for cold marinated peanuts, spring rolls, rainbow beef lettuce cup, and stir fired curry celery came from Complete Chinese Cookbook by Ken Hom.   The recipes for spring onion lamb and noodles in black bean sauce came from EASY ASIAN.  The recipes for golden scallion & ginger scallops and seared baby bok choy came from Simple Asian Meals by Nina Simonds .  The recipe for flash cooked bean sprouts came from A Spoonful of Ginger by Nina Simonds  

Friday March 29, 2013

Dinner for 4

Japanese Pickled Vegetables
Beef and Shallot Skewers

Gyoza
Karaage Chicken
Horenso No Goma-ae
Kakiage
Green Salad with Miso Dressing
Nanban-zuke with Steamed Rice
Five Spice Nashi with Ginger Cream

My sister is in town for Easter weekend, without her spouse, so one of my adult nephews has joined us.  Prior to my sister and brother-in-law moving away last year they were the anchor at my table for my Friday Night Dinners.  

Tonights dinner is consiting mainly of many small plates served over the course of the evening.  Each one was fairly easy to cook although some of the dishes had a lot of prep work and sitting time.  The recipes can be found here at the Japanese tapas menu plan except for the Japanese Illusion a delicious cocktail anytime.

I love pickled anything really and I especially like having pickles with any Asian cuisine.

This has to be one of my favourite Gyoza recipe.  I think it was the pre-cooking of the ginger, garlic and cabbage.  I also made a spicy soy dipping sauce by combining salt reduced soy sauce and chilli garlic sauce.

Beef and green onions are aways a favourite in my books.  These were super easy with bottled teriyaki sauce.

The Horenso No Goma-ae, a spinach and sesame salad, was quick and delicious.

As was the Karaage Chicken which was deep fried chicken thighs. My oil was just a little to hot so they got a bit dark.  Someday I hope to have a frier where I can control the temperature.

I think the Kakiage, a prawn and vegetable fritter, was the hit of the night.  I used purple heritage carrots which made the dish even more colourful.  It was my first go at any sort of fritter.  I think I needed a little less oil in my pan and to get the oil a little hotter.  For a first attempt they certainly tasted great and were a big hit with my guests. 

Miso salad dressing where have you been all my life?  This is being added to the go to recipe book for sure. So tasty!

Nanban-Zuke, fried fish with vinegar and onion on steamed rice, was also very tasty, light and sour, but at this point in the evening we were all getting rather stuffed.

I love fruit desserts and this one was delicious.  The savoury/sweet spices of 5 spice paired nicely with the Nashi.  The chopped candied ginger added to the cream was delicous.  This is definately my kind of dessert.

All the dishes were fantastic and I would cook any of them again.

 

Friday March 22, 2013

Dinner for 6

Antipasto Plater

Rocket Pesto & Capsicum Bruschetta

Mixed Tomato and Bocconcini Bruschetta

Slow-Braised Chicken in White Wine

Soft Parmesan Polenta

Beans with Garlic Bread Crumbs

Panzanella

Chocolate & Cherry Zuccotto

This meal was based off of this modern Italian feast .  I had to adjust the meal a little as it is designed to serve 10 and I was only serving 6. 

The Antipasto plater had mostly store bought items except I grilled the zucchini and eggplant and made the baked ricotta.  The ricotta was the biggest hit, it was so tasty.

I love bruschetta and I really enjoyed the rocket pesto with capsicum (red bell peppers).  I didn't have any feta to go on top so I just shaved a little parmesan.  I love roasted peppers and even made extra to go on sandwiches this week.  They will go great with the leftover grilled eggplant and zucchini.

The chicken turned out very tasty, nice and moist, but the sauce didn't thicken like I expected it to. I have tried to make polenta a couple of times before but I have yet to master it. More practice is required.  While it was tasty it was much too thick and gloppy for my taste.  Although my guests thought it was great.  When it mixed on the plate with the thinner sauce from the chicken it had a better consistency.

I loved the panzanella and plan to make it more often.

The green beans were okay.  I really couldn't taste the garlic in the bread crumbs.  I would have liked a stronger garlic flavour.

The big surprise of the night was how much I liked the dessert.  I have mentioned often that dessert really isn't my thing.  Chocolate, cake, cheese, nuts, peel, glace cherries all together, I didn't think I would like it but it was fantastic.  The cake was a little dry, I am not the best baker, but brushing it with the Marsala worked wonders.  It looked rather beautiful when you cut into it as it was a layer of cake, layer of the white cheese with the red and green cherries then a layer of the chocolate cheese with pistachios and peel.  I really wish I had remembered to take a picture.

All in all it was a fantastic night with two wonderful couples and no rushing.