I recieved Paula Wolfert's "The Cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean" as a Christmas gift this year. I made my first recipe from the book yesterday (for dinner tonight,) - "Kurdish Hot and Spicy Red Lentil Soup." Simple, but very satisfying. Pretty spicy too! I love the convenience of canned garbanzos, but this dish reminded me of the superior texture and depth of flavor that comes from soaking and cooking them from dried.
Can't wait to continue exploring this book!

a bowl of smoked sausage, pulled pork, and okra gumbo(no pic), and a pp and slaw sandwich...

hit the spot.

Jambalaya!

some fried rice with leftover pork ribs from a previous smoke.

I made butternut squash gratin yesterday for gratin & asparagus nite, and the night before I made potato timbales with ricotta and egg whites (light as a feather!) that we're eating tonight with salmon.

I got a big ol' squid from H-Mart. I'm going to stuff it.

Last night, a salad of baby spinach, cilantro and beet greens with a vinaigrette of rice wine vinegar, garlic, mustard, fresh ginger, and a light canola oil.

The salad was served with slices of roasted organic red and golden beets, cubes of Roaring 40s Blue Cheese, diced dried figs, and thinly sliced chili dusted medium rare duck breast.

YourPalWill wrote:

nice..

tonight for me is the ultimate finger foods, spares, & crab legs.

plus some baked mac-n-cheese

Tonight we're having smoked pork chops, red cabbage (cooked with a little applesauce) and I'm toying with the idea of making spaetzle.

baked mac-n-cheese, spares, a couple pounds of crab legs(finally finished off that a10# case from RD).:

Veal scallopine with Marsala cream sauce, pasta with a simple garlic & fresh basil sauce, and roasted eggplant with shallots.

Some braised collard greens with lardons from the Keller ad hoc cookbook.

Beef tenderloin fajitas with sauteed red and green peppers and onions, fresh guac and spanish rice........

Ceviche with tilapia and shrimp. Found some Peruvian aji peppers at Tony's Finer Foods; used serranos last time. Also got key limes this time.

And still plenty of aji sauce to go with the bread.

knocked out a batch of french onion soup late yesterday afternoon, full of flavor by dinner time, served with a nice turkey, genoa salami, and provolone sandwich on french bread.

Braised veal shank with blood orange and fennel. Actually, I did all the prep yesterday so it is just a matter of slowly heating it up again and making a nice risotto on the side.

grilled cornish game hen, swiss chard with crimini mushrooms and mashed potatoes

lunch:

will be some arrachera off the Weber kettle. Got this recipe from some Mexican co-workers @ a restaurant I worked at back in the day I use skirt steak run throught the needle tenderizer @ the butcher shop, then marinate it in minced jalapenos, minced garlic, olive oil, and lime juice for a couple hours before a quick high heat cook on the grill. Got flour and corn tortillas, onion, and a couple avocados for some killer lunchtime tacos.

dinner:

I am going to do some stuffed chicken breasts on the WSM, stuffed with asparagus, fontina cheese, and some fresh mozz, then wrapped in bacon. New recipe/idea of mine but I think I can knock it out. Probably served with rice * maybe a salad(I have some homemade Russian dressing to finish up)

Tomorrow is South Side Irish Style corned beef, cabbage, and red potatoes... our St. pattys Day meal since there will be no time to make it on Wednesday night after work

jimswside wrote:lthen marinate it in minced jalapenos, minced garlic, olive oil, and lime juice for a couple hours before a quick high heat cook on the grill.

Your South of the Border style marinade sounds similar to mine, though I add a little toasted/fresh ground cumin and bruised knob onions. For the knob onions I simply smack em a few times with the side of a heavy knife, you want them to release a bit not fall apart, and then grill along side the skirt steak. (I typically use skirt for tacos not flank)

Sounds as if you have a heck of a grill smoker day planned, nice, very nice.

Enjoy,
Gary

G Wiv wrote:

jimswside wrote:lthen marinate it in minced jalapenos, minced garlic, olive oil, and lime juice for a couple hours before a quick high heat cook on the grill.

Your South of the Border style marinade sounds similar to mine, though I add a little toasted/fresh ground cumin and bruised knob onions. For the knob onions I simply smack em a few times with the side of a heavy knife, you want them to release a bit not fall apart, and then grill along side the skirt steak. (I typically use skirt for tacos not flank)

Sounds as if you have a heck of a grill smoker day planned, nice, very nice.

Enjoy,
Gary

thanks Gary, I may do some onions as you suggested, plus some grilled salted jalapenos.

the marinade and the fresh lime juice starts "cooking" the beef as it marinades, so the meat takes on a real nice almost twice cooked flavor to me. I really learned alot, and ate alot of good food my coworkers brought to the kitchen back in the day, really fun time period of my life.

been waiting for tonight supper all day...

reuben sandwich with my corned beef from Sunday, a mound of corned beef, kraut, alot of swiss, buttered and grilled dark rye, and my homemade Russian dressing... Mercy...

jimswside wrote:reuben sandwich with my corned beef from Sunday, a mound of corned beef, kraut, alot of swiss, buttered and grilled dark rye, and my homemade Russian dressing... Mercy...

Sounds very tasty, whats your Russian dressing recipe?

G Wiv wrote:

jimswside wrote:Sounds very tasty, whats your Russian dressing recipe?

sandwich was excellent,

Russian Dressing recipe adapted to my taste from a recipe from my 2nd favorite cookbook Joy of Cooking:

2 cups mayo
1/2 cup chili sauce
2 tbsp horseradish
2 tbsp grated onion
2 tsp Lea & Perins
spash of hot sauce(Texas Pete this time)
salt & black pepper to taste.

I'm very lucky to have a great gourmet market here in Atlanta called Star Provisions. They sell really beautiful meats and fresh from the farm produce.

Today, they had a rack of Berkshire Pork in the meat case. I asked them to carve me off a couple of bone in chops which I brined for a couple of hours (salt and water only). I then pan seared them over a bed of kosher salt and finished roasting them off in a 400 degree oven for ten minutes. Served them over roasted purple and red potatoes cooked Bistro 110 style with lots of garlic and rosemary. The chops were topped with a sauce of shallots sauteed in butter, reduced apple juice, grain mustard and half and half.

That was some damn good pig, friends.

I made Tonkatsu

porkchops- pounded kinda thin, eggwashed,and panko breaded, pan fried atop thinly shredded cabbage ( i use coleslaw mix to save time and keep me from throwing out half a cabbage) served with white rice

garnished with hot mustard, togarashi, and of course a healthy drizzle of katsu sauce over the pork (4tbls worcestershire, 2tbls ketchup, 1 tsp soy sauce)

Leftover Corned beef, cabbage and potatoes, made into kick-ass hash.

Quick stir-fry with ham, shallots, carrots, ginger, garlic, spinach and orange peppers over spaghetti noodles followed by bruleed Maxwell Street pineapple chunks with Maxwell Street "Cajeta de leche de vaca" whatever the heck that is (got into a discussion about how cajeta usually refers to goat's milk dulce de leche, but also can mean something else, but he couldn't say what - maybe the fact that this stuff was almost candy?) Anyway - yum. Certainly the best 50-cent pineapple I've ever had - and probably better than most of the $3-4 ones I've had recently.

Cornmeal and toasted almond crusted tilapia (from the fish purveyor at French Market), lemon rice with green onion and almond, and roasted skinny asparagus.

Improvised Chinese food:

2C Shredded "Low and Slow" pulled pork
1 cube fresh tofu (from H-Mart), cut into 1/2" slices and pressed between two sheet pans for a half-hour then cut into 1" squares
2 large scallions, sliced small, green parts separated from white
3 cloves garlic, minced fine
1" ginger, minced fine
1/4C oil
1.5 tsp Chile Garlic paste (toban djan)
1/2 C red bell pepper, julienne
1/2 C carrot, julienne
1/2 C button mushrooms, sliced
Sauce ingredients:
5 ice cubes of veal stock (about 1/3 C)
2 Tbs soy sauce
2 Tbs chinese cooking wine
1.5 tsp sesame oil
1/4 C water
1 tsp sugar
1 Tbs corn starch

1) Heat oil in wok
2) Sear tofu squares on both sides in batches, about 1 minute on each side, remove to serving pan, draining as much oil as possible
3) Add chile paste to oil, stir fry for 30 seconds
4) Add carrot, pepper and mushroom, stir fry for 2 minutes or until tender
5) Add garlic, ginger and scallion whites, stir fry for 30 seconds
6) Add pork, then the sauce ingredients. Bring to boil and stir until it starts to thicken
7) Add tofu squares and scallion greens, stir to combine flavors
Serve

The combination of smoked pork, red peppers, mushrooms and sesame oil is fantastic -- I'm going to have to figure out a few more combos using that.
The dish is rich, not too spicy, plenty of garlicky, umami porky goodness.

Sauteed Frog Legs with Tomato Garlic Butter ala Emeril Lagasse.

This is my fifth time making them and they've always been a huge success. I swear I haven't had better frog legs in any restaurant other than the now shuttered Phil Schmidts.

Recipe can be found on the Food Network website. Link below.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/sauteed-frog-legs-with-tomato-garlic-butter-recipe2/index.html.