What's for Dinner?

[lisarea]

Can you guys tell I like food? I TOLE YOU I was jonesing for a whole food forum, didn't I?

Anyway, so, I think we need a "What's for Dinner?" thread.

Me first: Be bim bob! (Bibimbap, as it's more commonly and inferiorly styled.)

Except I'm going to do it with basmati rice, because I don't have sticky rice, and we just bought a huge bag of basmati.

This is the plan:

Marinate thinly sliced beef strips in a mix of black bean sauce, rooster chili sauce, sesame oil, and ginger.

Saute all the following:

Spinach
Onions
Mushrooms
Bean sprouts
The marinated beef strips, with some of the marinate

keeping them pretty separate.

Serve over the rice, with a fried egg on top, with kimchee and more rooster sauce.

I've never made it before, but the nearest place I know that has it is way out in Denver, so I guess I may as well try it.

Pray for me.

[livius drusus]

I'm on my knees even as I type, lisa.

Meanwhile, it's whole wheat penne all'arrabiata for me. Just your basic tomatoes, paste, fresh garlic, garlic powder, cayenne, red pepper flakes, s & p cooked down for a few and then blended so the heat is evenly distributed. Add some Parmeggiano Reggiano (as if there were any other kind) and you've got the perfect summer sweat dinner.

Warning: do not drink red wine with it. Your mouth will explode.

[pescifish]

I made a pork tenderloin for lunch and to bring to work for dinner. Marinated it in soy sauce, garlic, cumin and some roast rub. Baked a couple of potatoes with it, scooped out most of the insides for mashed potatoes.

Ate the skins with some pork and a salad for lunch,
brought the mashed potatoes with some pork and a ton of asparagus spears for dinner.

Dinner will be accompanied by the sweet sound of flight data, processing.

[Lauri D]

Originally Posted by pescifish

I made a pork tenderloin for lunch and to bring to work for dinner. Marinated it in soy sauce, garlic, cumin and some roast rub. Baked a couple of potatoes with it, scooped out most of the insides for mashed potatoes.

Ate the skins with some pork and a salad for lunch,
brought the mashed potatoes with some pork and a ton of asparagus spears for dinner.

Dinner will be accompanied by the sweet sound of flight data, processing.

*drool*

I will have to try that marinade, pesci - I LOVE pork tenderloin, esp. on the grill in the summertime. What is roast rub though? Is it like a prepackaged thing you can get at the store? /ignorance

[viscousmemories]

Originally Posted by lisarea

Me first: Be bim bob! (Bibimbap, as it's more commonly and inferiorly styled.)

I love Be bim bob. In fact my friends Mom and I went to three different places in Ann Arbor for it on three separate Saturdays, and decided that the best of them was Bell's Diner. As it happens, on a later occasion I asked the waitress how they make it, and she wrote this for me:

Korean Bibimbap Recipe (from Bell’s Diner, Ann Arbor, Michigan)

1. Spinach
2. Bean Sprouts
3. Cabbage and Carrot
   1. Cut thin then julienne
   
   Mix 1-3 with:
   Salt
   Pepper
   Sesame Seeds
   Sesame Oil
   Garlic Powder
   
   (Keep covered and refrigerate)
   
4. Cucumber
   1. Slice thin (around the cucumber, avoid the seeds)
   2. Julienne
   3. Do not marinate cucumber
5. Meat: Rib eye beef cut thin and marinate with:
   1. Sugar
   2. Honey
   3. Soy Sauce
   4. Garlic Powder
   5. Salt
   6. Pepper
   
   (Keep covered and refrigerate)
   
6. Egg
7. Hot Sauce
8. Sesame Oil

This is the recipe as it was given to me. As you can see, there are no measurements or indications of how to assemble the dish. What I know about that is just from the experience of ordering it. That is, it is served in a big aluminum bowl full of rice, with the vegetables and meat in little piles around the top of the rice, and a sunny-side egg on top. The hot sauce and sesame oil are provided on the side.

Have fun experimenting, and tell me anything you learn about making it in the process and, of course, how you make it better!

[viscousmemories]

I had Korean BBQ for dinner tonight. One of those places where they cook meat on your table and give you a bunch of mysterious foods in little side dishes.

[RevDahlia]

Dinner tonight is leftovers.

So I guess "What WAS for dinner?" is more apropos and interesting.

Grilled pork tenderloin stuffed with chipotle chiles (my recipe for this is really good if anyone wants it,) Spanish rice, grilled marinated red peppers and homemade guacamole. It is tasty, but looking at it right now it occurs to me that the color scheme is kinda early-70s. Beige, orange and avocado green. Huh.

[viscousmemories]

Originally Posted by RevDahlia

(my recipe for this is really good if anyone wants it,)

Whatdya want, a written invitation?

Okay, here it is:

Dear RevDahlia,

We, the people of the Freethought Forum, kindly request your presence at the keyboard for at least the length of time necessary to type, fully and without pause, the recipe for what we are quite sure is a fine, fine meal.

Please do us the honor of responding in the affirmative.

Sincerely yours,

The People of FF

:makingpiz

[RevDahlia]

Tom, you sarcastic bastard. Here's where all the damn smilies come in handy:

Chipotle-stuffed pork thing

You need

Pork tenderloin, about 15 oz
1 small can chipotle chilies in adobo sauce
3/4 cup plain yogurt, whole or lowfat
Juice of 1 or 2 limes, depending on how pliant your limes are
Cumin
Salt

Mix yogurt, lime juice, a couple tablespoons of the adobo sauce that came with the chilies, and as much cumin as you like until all is runny.

Mince chipotles very fine -- how many depends on how hot you like your food. Here seems like a good place to mention that chipotles vary wildly in intensity, so taste before you mince.

Lay out pork tenderloin on work surface, and with a sharp sexy fillet knife slice it thicknesswise until you can open it like a book. (This is very gratifying.) Salt the inside parts, and then spread minced chipotles over them evenly. I use 2 or 3 tbsps per tenderloin. Then close pork back up, cover it with a sheet of waxed paper, and give it a couple of good whacks with a rolling pin to seal it so it won't shrink too much.

Put pork in a dish with the yogurt marinade, turning to coat, and leave it for at least half an hour, although a couple of hours is best.

Fire up the grill and let it get quite hot. Put on the pig and cook until it won't give you trichinosis and piss Gawd off. (or until internal temperature reaches 160) Remove to a plate and allow to rest for a few minutes, then slice and serve with the rice and the peppers you grilled alongside. And the guacamole. There.

This also works beautifully with thick-cut pork chops -- adjust chipotle quantity accordingly. You can fix it without a grill as well -- heat some vegetable oil VERY hot and sear pork on both sides, then park it in a 400 degree oven until done.

[Dingfod]

Dinner tonight? I hadn't really given it much thought. Perhaps lemon-pepper chicken breasts cooked on the George Foreman grill along with green beans and broccoli after a green salad with bleu cheese dressing. I won't really know until I get home and actually find out if I feel like fixing that. We, my daughter Roxy and I, might end up eating Tyson popcorn chicken and Cheetos, I don't know... yet.


Warren

[lisarea]

Well, the be bim bob wasn't as good as Seoul Food's (cute, huh?), but it wasn't bad, either. I need to really take the time to slice the beef thinner, and I'm going to adopt some of the stuff from your recipe, vm. Basically, bibim means stir in with or something, and bap means rice, so it's just "stuff you stir in with rice." Which is just my kind of cooking. Get a bunch of stuff that's in your refrigerator, or on sale, and mix it all up until it tastes good.

I do need to get bigger bowls. I might just go do that today, because I've been scraping by with these little babyassed bowls just forever.

On topic, tonight, I might make the ODB happy and do meatloaf. If I ever wanted to turn him back into a fat guy, that's how I'd do it.

Meatloaf recipe.
Meat
Loaf

Just kidding.

Make a sauce from:
tomato paste
worchesteresterchishire sauce
pepper
salt
celery seed
cider vinegar
molasses
garlic powder
cayenne pepper

It should be a kind of sweet, and it should make your nose hurt a little, too.

In a big mixing bowl, combine:

lean ground beef
(ground pork, optional)
bread crumbs
eggs
rosemary, sage, oregano, thyme, garlic, salt, pepper, celery seed, etc.
some of the sauce

Until it's firm but a little squishy.

Form it into loaf pans, and bake at 350 or whatever (I have the shittiest oven ever, so take any temperatures with a grain of salt), for a really, really fucking long time, until the meat thermometer says it's almost done.

Take the meatloaf out, drain any giant pools of fat from the pans, and cover it with the remaining sauce, then finish cooking it. (You need to make sure not to burn the sauce.)

Serve it with mashed potatoes with about a million pounds of butter and whole milk mashed in, then add more butter while you're eating it. You'd better eat a salad, too, so you can pretend that you're not just a big fat pig.

I guess you may as well make brownies, too, Porky.

[Dingfod]

What if I get the meatloaf and the brownies mixed up and I the sauce on the brownies and the frosting on the meatloaf? Is that OK? Would anyone even notice (much like my missing mustache)? Or would I have to start over from scratch, feeding the messed up brown food to the dogs, who would for sure eat it in large gulps?


Warren

[lisarea]

Brownies should not have frosting on them.

Problem solved.

[livius drusus]

Meat thermometer? Well la-di-da. Fucking snobs.

[lisarea]

Originally Posted by livius drusus

snobs.

You missplet 'amateurs' or 'hacks' or 'n00bs' or something.

I done TOLD you my oven is a bag of ass. Plus, I'm scared of meat.

[livius drusus]

You're scared of meat? I can see I'm going to have to whip out my mom's Keftedes recipe, made from 3 different kinds of animal; 4, if you count the eggs.

[lisarea]

I was a vegetarian for many years, including those when I basically learned to cook, so I get kind of squoodgy and scared whenever I cook meat because I still don't really trust myself to know how.

Of course, I have no compunctions about eating raw meat from time to time, up to and including that time that I knowingly ate bad uni. So I guess I'm just stupid.

But you know, if you've got your heart set on whipping out your meat, by all means do so.

[Beth]

After breaking up numerous physical and verbal fights between my kids and taking them to see movies and visit relatives and after an evening birthday party, I will return home, put two frozen bake to rise pizzas and toss together an authentic Greek salad. I love Greek food.

[Dingfod]

Originally Posted by warrenly

Dinner tonight? I hadn't really given it much thought. Perhaps lemon-pepper chicken breasts cooked on the George Foreman grill along with green beans and broccoli after a green salad with bleu cheese dressing. I won't really know until I get home and actually find out if I feel like fixing that. We, my daughter Roxy and I, might end up eating Tyson popcorn chicken and Cheetos, I don't know... yet.

We ended up with broiled chicken filet sammiches from Arby's. I'm a lazy no-good father. I'm so lazy I didn't even go get them, I sent Roxy (she is 16 and drives). I sat there with my feet on the coffee table watching television.


Warren

[viscousmemories]

Originally Posted by warrenly

We ended up with broiled chicken filet sammiches from Arby's.

Arby's has chicken now? How long has this been the case? I used to work for an Arby's-like fastfood place in Ann Arbor called Rax. At the time (mid-80's), Rax was widespread in Ohio and trying to expand into Michigan. They didn't last long in Ann Arbor. The funny thing is they tried everything. We started off with just roast beef sandwiches and a salad bar (IIRC) but I remember at various times having chicken, fish, hot dogs, hamburgers, etc. Nothing worked. I also worked at an Arby's briefly and a Taco Bell for one night.

Hmm. Guess I shouldn't post so soon after I wake up.

[Dingfod]

Arby's has the following chicken sandwiches: Roast Chicken Club, Chicken Breast Fillet, Cordon Blue, Chicken Bacon'n Swiss all on buns or sub rolls, Roast Chicken Caesar Market Fresh Sandwich (on thick soft homemade-style bread), and Chicken LowCarby's (a low carb chicken wrap). They've also got some very good salads now, as their home page shows.

I ate at a Rax roast beef place once or twice in Ogden, Utah a couple decades ago. They were no longer around by the time I moved to Utah in 1989.


Warren

[livius drusus]

Originally Posted by Beth

I love Greek food.

Me too! My mom's dad was a Greek immigrant. He was a chef too, and although his restaurant in Connecticut was standard pot roast and chipped beef 1950s American diner, I have a slew of wonderful recipes from him. Including the Keftedes I threatened lisarea with above.

[Beth]

Originally Posted by livius drusus

Me too! My mom's dad was a Greek immigrant. He was a chef too, and although his restaurant in Connecticut was standard pot roast and chipped beef 1950s American diner, I have a slew of wonderful recipes from him. Including the Keftedes I threatened lisarea with above.

I've had it before I turned into a fish, chicken, dairy, and veggie only eater. It is kinda good. I love going to Tarpon Springs to the Sponge Docks and endulge in the Greek food. I am especially good at Greek pastries.

[Ensign Steve]

Personal cheese pizza, chili cheese fries, and pecan pie from the dining facility.

[viscousmemories]

Originally Posted by Ensign Steve

Personal cheese pizza, chili cheese fries, and pecan pie from the dining facility.

Hehe. Someone oughta tell your employer that good nutrition is essential to your physical conditioning.