What was dinner?

[ppanther]

My menu from tonight...

Endive/Apple/Walnut/Gorgonzola salad

Sauteed Pork Tenderloin Medallions with Fennel, Orange, and Olives
Roasted Carrots and Parsnips

Tasty Pinot noir that was purchased on a wine-tasting trip in Solvang

Speckled Creme Brulee

...yep, it was really good. And *mostly* healthy. (Had to plan it that way so the Creme Brulee was acceptable!)

For the salad:
2 tbsp. good balsamic vinegar (I used Fig balsamic)
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 c. walnut oil (or extra light olive oil)
1/2 tsp. honey
1/2 tsp. dijon mustard
freshly-ground black pepper to taste
Handful of flat-leaf parsley leaves (maybe 1/4-1/2 c.)
4 Belgian endives
1 medium eating apple (I used Fuji)
Juice of half a lemon
3/4 c. walnuts, lightly toasted and coarsely chopped
4 oz. crumbled gorgonzola

Whisk vinegar, salt, oil, honey, and mustard until it comes together... add pepper to taste and set aside.

Place parsley in large bowl. Thinly chop endives, discarding core... add to bowl. Chop apple into quarters, remove core, cut into slices around 1/8" thick, then cut again crosswise... add to bowl. Toss endives and apples with lemon juice (to prevent browning). Add walnuts, gorgonzola, and dressing... toss to coat. Serve.

(YUM)

For the pork:
1 lb. pork tenderloin, cut into medalions about 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick
2 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper

and...
1 more tbsp olive oil
1/2 medium fennel bulb, root end and core removed, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
zest and juice from one orange (I used a blood orange)
2/3 c. chicken broth
2 tbsp. chopped parsley
1/4 c. pitted green olives, sliced

Heat oil in a large skillet until it shimmers. Add pork in batches... don't crowd. Lightly brown both sides... it takes very little time. Maybe 90 sec. to 2 min. per side. All you want to do is cook it until you don't see any more pink on the outside. Don't worry, it won't be underdone. Put cooked pork on plate, set aside.

Return pan to medium heat and add remaining oil. Add fennel and cook around 2 minutes, until it softens and starts to brown. Add garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant. (Doesn't take long. DO NOT BURN THE GARLIC.) Add the orange juice and scrape up the brown bits on the bottom of the pan. Cook until the juice cooks down so that it's just glazing the fennel. Increase heat to high. Add chicken broth and any juices accumulated on the pork plate... cook down until it's around the consistency of maple syrup.

Decrease heat to medium. Return pork to pan (all of it), turn over to coat both sides. Stir in orange zest, parsley, and olives. Cook 2 minutes, or until the pork is heated through and the flavors are blended.

Tasty.

For the vegetables:
Carrots and Parsnips, any amount.

Peel carrots and parsnips and cut into whatever size you want, taking care to keep the sizes fairly similar throughout (so everything cooks evenly). Toss on baking sheet with enough olive oil to barely coat. Sprinkle with kosher salt, black pepper, and a generous amount of herbs de provence (or any other dried herbs you have on hand... basil, thyme, oregano, rosemary, etc.) Roast at 350 for 25 minutes... toss the vegies around and turn the pan, roast another 25 minutes or until done.

People love these vegetables. If you've never tried parsnips, you are seriously missing out!!

And now, for the finale...

Speckled Creme Brulee

Note: I had never made Creme Brulee before. It turns out it was REALLY easy to do. Wanna impress someone? Do this. Just don't eat too much of it... RICH

2 1/3 c. heavy cream
1/3 c. half and half
1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
8 egg yolks
1/2 c. sugar
4 tsp. bittersweet or semisweet chocolate shavings
raw/turbinado sugar

Preheat oven to 300.

Heat cream, half and half, and vanilla in heavy saucepan until it just comes to a boil. Take pan off heat and set aside to steep for 10 minutes.

Whisk sugar into egg yolks until just combined. SLOWLY whisk hot cream mixture into egg yolks, taking care to whisk well while adding the liquid so as not to cook the eggs. (If you do this slowly, you will slowly increase the temperature of the eggs... they will not curdle.)

Just in case you cook some yolk (and to remove the vanilla bean), strain mixture into large measuring cup. Place 4-6 ramekins in a pan (i used a 13x9 sheet pan) and divide custard among them. Divide chocolate shavings and sprinkle over each ramekin. Add nearly boiling water to the pan, fill to about half-way up the ramekins. Place in oven (carefully) and bake 30-40 minutes. Custard will be just beginning to set along the outside, it will still be jiggly on the inside. It will finish cooking while it cools. Remove ramekins from water bath and let cool for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes, wrap each ramekin tightly with plastic wrap... be sure not to let the plastic touch the custard. Place in refrigerator, let chill for at least 2 hours.

Preheat broiler. Place ramekins on sheet pan. Cover the top of each custard completely with raw sugar (make sure it's covered but don't make it too thick). Broil for 2 minutes, remove and let sit for 1 minute... serve.

Seriously, it's really really really easy!

[bbqjones]

Speckled Creme Brulee

Note: I had never made Creme Brulee before. It turns out it was REALLY easy to do. Wanna impress someone? Do this. Just don't eat too much of it... RICH

2 1/3 c. heavy cream
1/3 c. half and half
1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
8 egg yolks
1/2 c. sugar
4 tsp. bittersweet or semisweet chocolate shavings
raw/turbinado sugar

Preheat oven to 300.

Heat cream, half and half, and vanilla in heavy saucepan until it just comes to a boil. Take pan off heat and set aside to steep for 10 minutes.

Whisk sugar into egg yolks until just combined. SLOWLY whisk hot cream mixture into egg yolks, taking care to whisk well while adding the liquid so as not to cook the eggs. (If you do this slowly, you will slowly increase the temperature of the eggs... they will not curdle.)

Just in case you cook some yolk (and to remove the vanilla bean), strain mixture into large measuring cup. Place 4-6 ramekins in a pan (i used a 13x9 sheet pan) and divide custard among them. Divide chocolate shavings and sprinkle over each ramekin. Add nearly boiling water to the pan, fill to about half-way up the ramekins. Place in oven (carefully) and bake 30-40 minutes. Custard will be just beginning to set along the outside, it will still be jiggly on the inside. It will finish cooking while it cools. Remove ramekins from water bath and let cool for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes, wrap each ramekin tightly with plastic wrap... be sure not to let the plastic touch the custard. Place in refrigerator, let chill for at least 2 hours.

Preheat broiler. Place ramekins on sheet pan. Cover the top of each custard completely with raw sugar (make sure it's covered but don't make it too thick). Broil for 2 minutes, remove and let sit for 1 minute... serve.

Seriously, it's really really really easy!

and youre really really really high!

sara lee poundcake takes me about 30 seconds to prepare, delve out and eat. your crap better be good because thats way too much work for something i supposedly shouldnt eat too much of.

[ppanther]

Let's see...

Sara lee pound cake sliced and thrown on a plate (blah)...
or creme brulee.

Yeah... I can see why you think pound cake would be equally impressive. Aim low and all that, ya know?

:roll:

[Miss Conduct]

Frozen Pizza. Hey, I was tired and got home late. :P

Tonight though I am making Chicken Enchilda Casserole with Spanish Rice.

[Mikey]

pp, your recipes sound wonderful but for the most part they are waaay too much work for this busy family guy. I try to keep my dinners simple and yet still good. Here's what we had Sunday night:

London broil. It's a great cut if you fix it right and I can often get it for under $3.00/lb.

Green salad with EVOO and vinegar dressing

Angel hair pasta with garlic, EVOO and freshly grated parmesan cheese.

London Broil:
Meat was marinated in a zippy in the fridge for about 2 days in a mixture of red wine vinegar, EVOO, garlic, salt, pepper and a couple dashes of Worcestershire sauce. Remove it from the fridge an hour or so before cooking and put it into a baking dish with the marinade. Grilled on an extremely hot grill for about 6-8 min per side depending on thickness. Should be well seared on the outside but rare in the center. Remove from the grill and let it rest while you cook the pasta and toss the salad. Slice very thinly on a 45 degree angle from the vertical.

Salad:
The main ingredient is mixed baby greens from the local farmer's market. One local grower sells them in large bags for $2.00 apiece. They are acutally whole baby heads of leaf lettuce, about 4 to 6 inches long with 6 or so leaves each. There's a wide variety of red, green, oak leaf, green with red spots (my fave)...maybe 10 different varieties in the mixture. You just break off the bottom rinse, spin and use. Add a few sliced shrooms and dress as such:

Rinse the lettuce and spin dry. Put into well aged, seasoned wooden salad bowl. Add salt and pepper. Drizzle on good EVOO (I use Adams Ranch California EVOO when I can get it), just enough to coat the leaves. Toss. Add red wine vinegar and toss again. Serve with tomato slices on the side. NEVER toss with the tomatoes in the salad. The juice dilutes the dressing. I also had some avo slices on the side on Sunday.

Pasta:
Cook angel hair pasta until done al dente. Drain in collander and rinse for 20 seconds with cold tap water to stop it from over cooking. Add minced garlic and EVOO and toss. Serve with fresh grated parmesan cheese.

There you have it.

For dessert we had some fresh local satsuma mandarins.

The whole thing, not including taking the London broil out of the fridge, is a maximum of 30 minutes from starting the grill to sitting down to eat.

[PrimeX]

toss the salad.

IT HAPPENED IN COLLEGE!! LET IT GO!!!

-IndyFrisco








:?

[ppanther]

pp, your recipes sound wonderful but for the most part they are waaay too much work for this busy family guy. I try to keep my dinners simple and yet still good.

I have no problem with simple and good, but... do you mean to tell me you never put in more than 30 minutes on a meal?? Don't give me the 'busy family guy' routine... you spent too much time on the internet to make that anything other than a handy excuse.

For the record, it took me about 1.25 hours of active prep/cooking to complete this meal, INCLUDING dessert. I don't cook like that every night, to be sure, but on a Sunday evening? I'd rather prepare a 'fantastic' meal for my man than hurry through a 'good' one. To me, it's a worthwhile investment.

That's not to say your dinner doesn't sound pretty 'good'. ;)

[Mikey]

That pork tenderloin does sound really good, and not "too" time consuming. I've always wanted to try cooking something with fennel, and those tenderloins are pretty cheap at Sam's Club or Costco.


I think I'll have to try that one.

[DamnTheCowboys]

Frozen Pizza. Hey, I was tired and got home late. :P

Which brand?

[Cueball]

I'm rockin' a Tombstone Extra Cheese right now. Preheat to 400, cook 12-14 minutes, burn the roof of your mouth. Enjoy!

[DamnTheCowboys]

I'm rockin' a Tombstone Extra Cheese right now. Preheat to 400, cook 12-14 minutes, burn the roof of your mouth. Enjoy!

T-Stones are the ultimate burn-your-mouth pizzas. But it is a great frozen pizza. Great for eating during a football game because it lasts a long time and you can just slowly chow down on it and eat a whole one.

[bbqjones]

if you can only eat one of those pizzas during a whole football game, you are not allowed to post about eating anymore. umkay. i set the roof on fire tonight as the fat pig couldnt find anything else to make. the lazy slop she is thgought we were sharing the pizza asn i was all, hell no, this my pizza. i gave some to the boy and she made another one. and i ate half of that one too. i could probaly eat three of those during a three hour periods. and im only 5-8, but so is antonio bandaris

[Ang]

We are on completely different schedules here in our family. So, on Sunday, I cooked a huge pot of chili. To augment the beef and bean thingey, we have leafy greens, grapes and raw carrots for everyone to work in with the chili when dinnertime allows. Tomorrow is the third day for that round of food.

Tomorrow we do something else for a few days. I have given up on preparing something that everyone (even though there are just 3 of us) will sit down and eat at the same time. It seems to work well to have a protein based something...be it a chili, a roasted chicken, bbq meat, pot of beans or a roast that is the staple, and then some fresh leafy or fruit and veg things that are available to grab as at least half of the meal. We don't usually cook veggies, just wash them and leave them in the fridge to eat with whatever else we are having. If squash is the veggie for a couple of days, we do nuke it for a minute or so to take the edge off and add some seasoning. That is quick and easy, and I think minimal veggie cooking is the best.

We are not pasta fans. It takes up too much time, needs too much seasoning, and is minimally nutritional. Pasta should be a social event instead of a meal :)

For a busy family, that seems to work better for us than frozen stuff. We do have a few frozen pizzas in the fridge for emergencies, but usually the plan of a major meat or bean and the associated fresh stuff works pretty well.

Our plan of attack on the meal thing includes that time when we would all like to sit down together and have what we would really like to eat, so when we have time for that...we go out!

[Headhunter]

I'm surprised you don't have a Creme Brulee torch, ppanther. I've been eyeballing them for a while.

I did a traditional Challah Monday. Phenomenal bread. First time I've braided a loaf. I was quite impressed. It was a time consuming loaf to say the least. I started saturday night, and let it gain some flavor in the fridge. Judging by some of the responses, I'd say most of you wouldn't care about the recipe for it seeing as how frozen pizza seems to be max effort.

[Donovan]

I would appreciate seeing that recipe, HH. I think it would be great to break bread with the real deal.

[ppanther]

I'm surprised you don't have a Creme Brulee torch, ppanther. I've been eyeballing them for a while.

I did a traditional Challah Monday. Phenomenal bread. First time I've braided a loaf. I was quite impressed. It was a time consuming loaf to say the least. I started saturday night, and let it gain some flavor in the fridge. Judging by some of the responses, I'd say most of you wouldn't care about the recipe for it seeing as how frozen pizza seems to be max effort.

I have a creme brulee torch... I just couldn't figure out how to make it work.



The broiling method worked, though. I honestly didn't have a problem with it.

I would LOVE to make a Challah. I need that Bread Bible!! I have a lot of good books loaded with bread recipes, though. My favorite so far was the Jewish Rye I made... Challah is definitely on my list. There IS no better French toast than the kind made from Challah.

[Headhunter]

For those not following ppanther and my discussion on the bread bible...

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/de ... 9?v=glance

A must have for making bread.


I'll work the recipe out. It's a pretty detailed recipe. I'll see If I can cheat and use the OCR on my scanner.

[mothster]

pan fried chicken sausage with peas n carrots