What's for dinner? | Page 66 | GTAMotorcycle.com

What's for dinner?

I made another excellent Asian stir fry wok meal from scratch. It includes large Zipperback shrimp (16-20/lb frozen raw) that cook up beautifully, plus asparagus, red sweet pepper, Chinese broccoli, chopped fresh onion, basswood black fungus, shiitake mushrooms, Chinese peanuts, fresh minced garlic, fresh minced ginger, chili flakes and Chinese instant noodles. It's light on the sauce and scratch-made with Thai black soy sauce (sweet), Chinese premium dark soy sauce, oyster sauce and fish sauce. Cooked with peanut oil in the wok and finished with a bit of sesame oil for added flavor. (big picture)
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Another charcuterie plate here, with a few new meats. It includes andouille sausage, Freybe swiss farmer sausage, beef jerky, spicy jalapeno cheeseball, Beemster Slimkaas cheese and Mediterranean antipasto with two types of crackers on the side.
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This is the uncut Freybe swiss farmer sausage. It reminds me in many ways of extra dry salami. Tasty stuff available at some mainstream grocer deli's
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I bought some fresh jackfruit (about a 2” slice of a large fruit) at the weekend to try a vegan recipe for BBQ pulled pork style jackfruit. I’ve had it before and wasn’t impressed when I tried it and was convinced I could do a bit better. Most commercial places use canned jackfruit instead of fresh.

It worked out really well. I used some caramelised onions I’d made earlier to fry with the separated jackfruit pieces (remove the seeds carefully) and some Montreal spiced beef seasoning until the jackfruit started to soften. Then I added some beer in portions to evaporate with the jackfruit/onion mix to soften it some more. All the time separating the mix into strands by pressing it with a fish slice tool. I added about a cup of beer over several minutes to evaporate down. Then mix in your favourite BBQ sauce. I used a reasonably spicy one as I wanted to get away from the sweetness of the fruit. Keep stirring and pressing to get the “pulled pork” consistency.

This made about 2 large cups of “pulled jackfruit”. I tried it and it was really good, I’ll head out and find some nice fresh Kaiser rolls to serve it on with some coleslaw.
 
mbroyda said:
you lost me at "vegan" lol
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I eat meat, wife is mostly vegan, but one of my favourite restaurants is actually a vegetarian one (vegan is a bit of a hard sell though admittedly). Don’t knock it. Some of the cuisine is beyond bland but the imaginative stuff is really good. Typically chefs used to cooking traditional meals don’t make good vegetarian/vegan dishes but those that know how to cook with things like enoki, tempeh, saitan and yes, even tofu can make some delicious stuff (not a big fan of tofu though). It’s probably the fastest growing cuisine type currently too for a lot of very good reasons.

It’s come a long way too, look at A&Ws Beyond burger that regularly sold out in the franchises when it first came out. It’s a veggie/vegan burger that’s really very good.
 
vegetarian / vegan is getting so much better in our society as hundred year old recipes get altered to fit our tastes. I'm not converting any day soon , but there are some pretty tasty dishes available.
There is a cook book called "she glows" (yeah I know....) but its my wifes bible for vegan cooking and its really good food.

vegan is an ancient word from a dead language, but the translation was 'bad hunter'
 
Beyond Meat burgers are now available at a bunch of places including The Works iirc.
And yes, A&W sold out their first order in record time. Took about 6 weeks to fill the back order.

I was at a Petro/A&W and a guy was complaining that his burger was undercooked. Poor girl couldn't convince him that his Beyond Meat burger was cooked, and that it wasn't meat.
I lol'd the whole drive home....he may still be there

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had a craving for French Onion Soup
couple of red onions and a Spanish onion
caramelizing in more butter then is advisable
low heat and much patience are required - constant stirring
cannot roast the onions at all or it's ruined

may add the slices of beef, maybe not, probably not
the usual spices, salt, peeper, garlic, bay leaves
some MSG
generally frowned upon, but it really makes certain flavours pop

will top with some home made garlic croutons
and float some havarti on them to finish

 
@JavaFan this guy has no patience when it comes to food.
I buy the pre made Costco ones.
That does look like the beginning of something delish, though.
MSG doesn't affect you? I get headaches.

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luckily MSG does not negatively affect me at all Joe
I'm also a big fan of Asian cooking which heavily features MSG

in stir fries it helps veggies retain the flavour and crispness
never had a chop souey turn out well until I put MSG in it

finished soup with havarti and grana podano topping:

 
Every few weeks I buy the jumbo bag of sweet vidalia onions from Costco and caramelise them all on the side burner of my BBQ in a big stock pot with a wad of aluminum foil underneath to get the temp right down. This gives me a few cups of what looks like an onion paste that has a rich sweet flavour. I use some on burgers and some to make soup. You can get a super quick French onion soup by just mixing some with vegetable stock after frying it briefly and deglazing with sherry and then add some fresh thyme. If you want it a bit thicker then blend some of the onion with the stock to make it thicker and then add some unblended caramelised onion afterwards.

In the summer I make a traditional French dish from Provence, a caramelised onion tart called pissaladiere, which is caramelised onion spread on a thin pizza dough type base layered with a few anchovies and sliced black olives and baked in a hot oven until the onion starts to brown a little and the dough has cooked through. Delicious stuff.
 
Some more great meals and pictures
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. Kabobs are now back in-stock at my local grocer and on sale
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I picked up some large ones at ~1/2 pound each or so. Here are a few recent meals of red wine and shallots marinated beef steak kabobs from the Weber Summit grill.
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Big pics with lots of resolution. My kabob cooks tend to be some of my best food pictures ;).

My meals are as seasonal as ever now. I look for sales and value; and that food is often what's in season. It gives me lots of variety as well.

Cheers and enjoy the weekend.
 
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Here's another tasty easy meal, a few recent cooks of General Tao Chicken
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All big pictures. You can see in the second picture how I cooked the vegetables to more lilt that time (that was my first attempt). No fresh cilantro in that either.

This is the PC General Tao Chicken Meal Kit :D. I'll buy it again. Super easy and fast. I used fresh green onions and sweet yellow pepper I picked up for this cook. I'm comfortable with some riffing and used chicken breast and the stove-top wok, adding fresh cilantro when plated. I cooked the rice in the Instant Pot my favorite way as well. The single red chili in both pictures was super tasty; I toasted it a bit in a pan as per the instructions.
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Cheers and enjoy the weekend.
 
jc100 said:
In the summer I make a traditional French dish from Provence, a caramelised onion tart called pissaladiere, which is caramelised onion spread on a thin pizza dough type base layered with a few anchovies and sliced black olives and baked in a hot oven until the onion starts to brown a little and the dough has cooked through. Delicious stuff.
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OK so I have heard of this but thought 'onion tart,not so much' but your description prompted me to google a recipe. Made it last night and its pretty tasty. I suck at pastry and getting consistent make take a couple more attempts but I'd say I was 95% there. Thanks.
 
crankcall said:
OK so I have heard of this but thought 'onion tart,not so much' but your description prompted me to google a recipe. Made it last night and its pretty tasty. I suck at pastry and getting consistent make take a couple more attempts but I'd say I was 95% there. Thanks.
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Getting the pastry nailed isn’t easy. Rolling it thinner is better for this dish is what I’ve found. Different flour gives very different results too.

If you like Mediterranean versions of different savoury tarts try tarte flambé from Alsace. If you’ve ever been to the Trois Brasseurs chain in Montreal it’s on their menu. Very tasty alternative to pizza. You need a very very hot oven to cook it properly and it works really well on a pizza stone on a BBQ.
 
Trois Brasseurs has a location in Mississauga , I eat there twice a month since they are one of the only places with a french based menu in our area. My backyard wood oven will hit 700d so I may try some of these if we ever see decent weather.
We do make a lot of flat breads as appetizers when we have people over, its great fun to hand guests a ball of dough and a table full of toppings and let them make there own.

I have an outdoor table for the process since there is always the one guy that needs to spin and toss it pizza guy style and I'm tired of fixing stucco on the dining room ceiling. Really.
 
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