Perpetual "What's for Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner Today" thread

[Hunter B]

For dinner last night my friends and I hit Pink's. Pink's is a hot dog joint out in Hollywood, and I've gotta say, they know how to make 'em! While huge and messy, I've had some of the best hot dogs in my life at that place. Definitely a place to go if you're ever in the area.

[E Pericoloso Sporgersi]

The Stingray Reloaded

No, not the famous Chevy Corvette. And while the giant critters actually do fly in Saturn Rukh by Robert L. Forward (which I recommend to 'hard science' SF-fans), I actually mean the underwater-flying Tellurian sea creatures, the Batoidea .

Last Saturday morning I went to the local weekly open-air market in my home suburb for a new cardigan. No joy, there were only women's clothes' stalls on display.

But I did find a seafood stall. I've always considered a Wing of Ray to be a delicacy. So I bought 0.718 kg of ray fin for €12.55 (expensive!, but it was enough for two meals).


Back home, I tried to emulate my mom's recipe, and, even though I say so myself, my ray turned out to be delicious and a success beyond my dreams. Well, it's a very easy recipe, you know.

Wing of Stingray with Brown Butter, Capers and Green Madagascar Pepper Corns (the latter are my personal addition to the recipe), and plain boiled potatoes (or mashed potatoes or Belgian fries). In French it is "Aile de Raie au Beurre Noir et Capres", in Dutch "Rogvleugel met Bruine Botersaus en Kappertjes".

Brown Butter Sauce, with Capers and Green Pepper Corns:
Heat the butter until it turns brown. Remove the pan from the heat source and cool the pan by dipping its bottom in cold water to stop the browning before it turns black (careful, it sizzles). Now 'reload' with ammo, i.e. add capers and green pepper corns.

Reheat the sauce just before serving or keep it hot on a tea warmer.

Cooking the ray wing (as explained by the fish stall's saleswoman):
Heat a copious amount of water with fish-appropriate spices and/or vegetables added. I used a ready-made mix of spices, a large onion cut into segments, a dash of white wine vinegar and half a glas of dry white wine. You can, of course, add any vegetable for a flavour that tickles your fancy; carrot, leek, celery, fennel, etc.


When the water is boiling, add the ray wing(s) and turn the heat source medium low. When the water resumes boiling, turn off the heat source (or remove the cooking pot from the heat source). Leave the fish in the hot water for ten minutes. Take care: cook it not long enough and the flesh isn't done; cook it too long and the cartilaginous bones fall apart, making it difficult to remove them.

Meanwhile you have ample time to reheat the sauce and the potatoes of your choice. I had mashed potatoe patties (frozen, and heated in the microwave oven), but I think I would prefer plain boiled (small) potatoes or a large baked potatoe (is that a baked yam to Yankees?).

Serve it hot on heated plates (normally without the boiled vegetables).


Each table guest still has to remove the cartilaginous bones from the wing. But this is easy, provided the ray has been cooked just right.


Each guest (unwelcome culinary critics included) can add salt and/or pepper, and/or even squeeze on a few drops of fresh lemon or lime juice, all to individual taste.


Finally ladle on the brown butter.


Passers-by went "YUMMY!".



Any left-overs can be recycled into another recipe: "Cold Wing of Ray in Tart Aspic".

To be continued in the next ( yummy ) episode.

[Darb]

Looks yummy ... especially the tart near the end.

I've had skate wing before, and love it. Here in the states it's very slowly been making the transition from bizarre/exotic cuisine status to uncommon delicacy.

Ok, quick story: I first had it back c.1987 in a Korean restaurant ... I vaguely remember ordering it blind by pointing at the daily special (which was in Korean), and the Korean waitress getting flustered and trying to dissuade me, clearly expecting a round-eyed westerner like me hating it, and possibly winding up in the nearest emergency room because it was SPICY. I smiled and signalled her to bring it. It was served cold, in it's own aspic/jelly, over cold asian noodles, doused with a little oil and a lot of bright red fresh chili sauce that seemed hot enough to fuse helium atoms into carbon-12. To the waitress' astonishment, I finished it.

More Recently, I've seen it slowly appearing in certain very progressive high-end restaurants, but with it's increasing popularity, I'm worried it may become endangered.

[Darb]

Lunch today was more of the leftover couscous (which was made with a weak smoked pheasant stock), over which I dumped a small can of sardines in picante sauce, and some CPEVO.

Aside: I generally eat oily fish in a regular basis, because I was born deficient in good cholesterol, and had to permanently adjust my diet to keep it normal. Lox, Salmon, Sardines (canned or fresh), Herring, Sushi, Fish Head soup, you name it, I like it. Unlike 95% of most americans, I usually (but not always) eat more fish (in one form or another) than red meat and pork combined.

[E Pericoloso Sporgersi]

... I've had skate wing before, and love it. ... slowly appearing in certain very progressive high-end restaurants, but with it's increasing popularity, I'm worried it may become endangered.

Even at twice the price I paid, I would still consider it a delicacy worth buying. I just hope there won't ever be a shortage, but always enough to supply my local market.

As for Beluga or Sevruga Caviar ... now that's too steep for my purse.
For special occasions, Christmas and New-Year's eve, birthdays, and to seduce the occasional tart , I'll go for salmon, trout or herring caviar, which are surprisingly tasty to me and to tarts.

[Darb]

As a wedding present, one of my best friends (who was exec chef for a cavar restaurant at the time) gave me, as a wedding present, a princely gift: two one-half pound tins of high quality Russian caviar (one of sevruga and one of golden ocetra). One tin went to my parent's house, and one to my inlaw's house. As it turns out, very few of our guests and inlaws were big fans of caviar, so I wound up eating the lion share of both tins. I still have the mother of pearl spoons somewhere, and my vodka bullet set is still sitting in my liquor cabinet.

However, I'm with you ... my tastes run towards less expensive salmon roe, which is my personal favorite by a wide margin. I also like american paddlefish, which is 75% as good as sevruga, flavorwise, and only a small fraction of the price ... plus, it's farmed, rather than endangered.

[MidasKnight]

Dr Pepper is flavored with prune juice, or so I thought.

[voralfred]

@MK: When I tried Dr. Pepper, I found it had a definite cherry taste.

@EPS: Where can we meet the passer-by who found your dish yummy?

[Darb]

Dinner tonite was sake kama (broiled salmon collar) and zarusoba (buckwheat noodles with dipping sauce).

[Hunter B]

Dinner tonite was sake kama (broiled salmon collar) and zarusoba (buckwheat noodles with dipping sauce).

So jealous... It still occasionally amazes me how Western tradition usually dictates that one discards fish collars...

And, on my end of the spectrum, tonight's dinner was Wendy's spicy chicken nuggets, Doritos, and ginger ale.

[Darb]

Utterly agree about collars ... until I moved just under 2 years ago, I lived within walking distance (1/4 mi) of a local fishmonger, and I used to slip him a few bucks to save me salmon collars and the "wings", fatty belly ridge, and belly flippers of the salmon he cut for sat mornings. Occasionally heads too. Guy thought I was nuts, and probably some sort of sexual deviant with a thing for fish garbage.

Anyway, somewhere a ways back I remember posting pics of grilled wings and belly ridge. Heads make nice salmon stock and salmon oil.

[MidasKnight]

Guess I should google fish collars.

[Darb]

There isn't really an accurate word for it in the English language, probably because until very recently that part of certain fish never merited culinary attention among English speaking people.

Sometimes incorrectly referred to as "cheeks", it is section of a fish just behind the gills, extending from the top of the fish, along behind the gills, and down to and including the front flippers. It includes the ridge of cartiledge just behind the gills. Most fish mongers here in the states, when they fillet a fish, start cutting just behind this "collar" and throw it out as being part of the head.

Just like some people (myself included) think wings and wing drumettes (upper arm) are the richest and tastiest part of a chicken, aficianandos of "kama" feel the same way about the collars of hamachi and salmon. Cooked properly, they are succulent, crispy, and have a more intense flavor and texture.

[MidasKnight]

Hrm, well put into that context, maybe I'm not interested.

I won't eat chicken wings for the simple fact that they are annoying to eat. They might taste fantastic, but I've yet to eat a wing that was worth the effort.

If fish collars are in a similar vein, then maybe I'll pass.

I do love good fish though ...

[Darb]

Extreme cuisine post linkage

Butchered side of salmon: (trimmed "wings" and belly ridge are on the left)


Grilled salmon belly ridge:


Grilled salmon wing:

[E Pericoloso Sporgersi]

... Just like some people (myself included) think wings and wing drumettes (upper arm) are the richest and tastiest part of a chicken, ...

In my opinion, the most delicious part of a chicken is its neck.

The neck meat is very tender, juicy and tasty (but don't eat the oesophagus and windpipe). Especially if you stuff the chicken with spiced hald-and-half ground veal and porc, and then bend (sometimes break) and push the neck into the spiced stuffing.

In close second place come the little pieces of meat on the spine and pelvis.

My late parents had a poulterer (also late) across the street where they lived. That man sold cleaned chickens, each with complete necks, about 8-9 cm long, and heads still attached. The livers he gave away for free. My mom barely decapitated the chicken before cooking.

When I was done nibbling the pot-roasted chicken's neck, I gave the rest to our dachshund, who loved the crunchy delicate bones.

It's a pity that cleaned chickens are now sold with little neck left on them.

[Hunter B]

For dinner I had... well, potatoes! Sliced 'em into rounds (1/8" thick), then marinated them in a whole mess of flavorful things (oil, red pepper flake, garlic, touch of cilantro, soy sauce and pickled lemon, just to name a few). To this I added two ears' worth of corn, and a half-pound of baby spinach. I didn't want to fuss around with the potatoes, so I wanted to throw 'em in the oven for a while. The only problem was, I didn't have a baking vessel large enough (we're talking 10-12 russet potatoes here), so I improvised and threw it all in my wok, and then threw that in the oven. An hour later, I check the potatoes to find they're still raw. All of them. It was then that I realized that I forgot to put some sort of cover on them, so all that wonderful steam was just leaving without cooking anything.

Luckily, the salt/sugar content + the heat of the oven actually wrung out a ton of moisture from the food. The result? A bunch of dried out potatoes, corn, and spinach resting in a wonderfully flavorful broth. I was at first quite annoyed with this, then I decided to use the wok like a wok. I placed it over my largest burner, and set it to flamethrower. With the wok now resting over a jet engine, it only took about 5-10 seconds for the liquid to start boiling. I turned the potatoes once every three-and-a-half minutes, until the broth became a nice sauce. At that point I added a touch of balsamic vinegar and dark rice wine (about 1/4 cup total), in order to loosen the sauce enough to allow me to finish wokking without scorching the food.

The end result was a wok full of perfectly done potatoes, that tasted like a Southern/Asian mix (could have used a touch less molasses). While quite good... An entrée it was not. My friends and I agreed that they would have been more at home next to a slab of ribs, than as a standalone.

[Darb]

I have a solution if you'd like to try that recipe again ... make a long foil pouch of of a double layer of extra wide aluminum foil, close it side to side over the top to form a steam chamber,fold up and pinch closed the ends (forming a "foil boat") and slap that sucker lengthwise across the full length of your preheated gas outdoor grill (if you have one) and close the lid for a good 10-15 mins with the heat on low-med. I do it all the time when I want to make several days worth or cook for a bunch of people. My grill is big enough to handle two 30 inch boats at the same time. Works great for foil pouch veggies, foil pouch potatoes, and even stuffed boneless fillets of salmon.


I will locate and post a pic later.

[Hunter B]

I've actually used that method several times, to great result. The only reason I really tried to use the wok was because it was 1 AM, and my parents probably wouldn't look too kindly on me going through their room to the back yard. Nor did I want to climb walls and maneuver around dog mines either. So, *shrug*, I did what I had to do. Besides, in the end, it actually was able to infuse a heck of a lot of flavor (more than I've been able to before) into the potatoes, instead of just having flavor cling to the sides. While too energy-wasteful to be used casually, I'll probably keep it in mind, or at least the principle behind the idea. (Partially drying out the food, then rehydrating/cooking in a very flavorful substance.)

[Darb]

Dinner tonite was fresh fava beans (which I hadn't made in 20+ years), and a few purple potatoes, which I'd bought on a whim.

[Hunter B]

Purple tomatoes... are those a form of heirloom, or a marketing thing (a la rainbow cauliflower)?

[Darb]

They're spelled purple p-o-t-a-t-o, not tomato.

/me palms an embossed raised-seal "escape laurie whamming" certificate.

[Hunter B]

Haha, wow, that's a definite oversight!

Soooo, umm... those purple potatoes... the only thing different is their color, right?

[Darb]

I've noticed they have a very faint hint of sweetness and an equally faint taro-like note.

[laurie]

/me palms an embossed raised-seal "escape laurie whamming" certificate.

Forged, no doubt.