Weird dinner times

With the Olympics going on, I've been eating at weird times thus far this week.  Saturday for "lunch" I had a seared chicken breast with poached mozzarella in tomato broth. 

Mozzarella, lemon, white wine, vegetable broth, parsley, basil, olive oil, tomato, red pepper flakes, onions, red wine vinegar and italian bread.

The bread got toasted under the broiler for a bit.

The onion got sweated down in a bit of olive oil.

Then the wine went in to deglaze the pan.

The tomato and broth join in.

And finally the mozzarella just until the cheese had started to melt.

The final plate, the chicken was served on the side.

Chiles Rellenos

Chiles Rellenos have been my favorite Mexican style dish since I think 1998 when my family took one of our last trips together with all six of us piled into the Suburban.  That trip was a two week trip to the Southwest including the Grand Canyon and then a week in Breckernridge.  On the southern loop we stopped for a bit in Carlsbad, NM and the absolute best chile relleno ever.  Well, in the 14 years since, I've been on a pseudo quest to find something as good, and Monday night I think I may have found it, though the cooking method needs a few tweeks.

 The stuff for the peppers.  Anaheim chiles, pepper jack cheese and parmesean.  The cheeses are a bit unique for the chiles rellenos that I've had in the past.  Most of the ones I've had use Monterey Jack cheese.

The dish was served with a gazpacho sauce here is the stuff for that sauce.  Cumin, garlic, worcestershire sauce, white wine vinegar, onion, carrot, cucumber, red pepper, celery and v-8 juice.

The tomato, onion, garlic, celery, and red pepper got pulsed through a food processor.

The rest of the ingredients joined the party.

The roasted chiles stuffed with the grated cheeses.  The chiles at this point went into the freezer to cool down for a bit.

The stuff for the batter.  baking soda, sugar, baking powder, salt, club soda, corn meal, white pepper and flour.

The chiles hitting the oil.  Nothing beats deep frying something.

The finished chiles.

The final plate.  The biggest change I would make is that the chiles spent too long in the freezer.  This meant that even though the oil was only 325 when I put the chiles in, the outside was cooked prior to the cheese being fully melted.  This, of course, is a difficult balance to keep.  Hopefully, next time I pull it off.

Paella

I'm a little bit behind here, but Sunday night I made some Paella.  Paella is a traditional Spanish rice and seafood dish.  My version had chorizo (a spicy spanish sausage), chicken, and shrimp.  So here we go.

Peas, chorizo, diced tomatoes, arborio rice, chicken broth, saffron, bay leaf, onion, shrimp, chicken thighs, parsley, red pepper and white wine.

The peppers went in first for a quick sautee.

The finished peppers.

Next are the chicken thighs.

The completed chicken thighs.

Chorizo

The onions went in next.

Then some garlic

Now time for the tomatoes

The rice

Now the liquid, chicken broth and wine

I brought the mixture to a boil and then added the chicken and sausage back to the pan.

The pan went into the oven for about 30 minutes and then the rest of the ingredients went in, peas, shrimp, red peppers and spices.

The final plate.

Chicken and pancakes

This was a somewhat unintentional play off of the classic southern dish of chicken and waffles, but that's what it turned out to be.  Grilled chicken served over corn and wild rice pancakes.

The raw ingredients for the pancakes.  Scallions, chipotle peppers, corn, baking powder, honey, flour, eggs, cream, wild rice and butter.

The prepped batter ready to go into the pan.

The cooked chicken.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmm pancakes.

The final plate.

Lobster

So from a blogging perspective my meals that I cooked on Monday and Wednesday night were pretty uninteresting, so this one is from Friday.  The meal Friday night was roasted lobster tail with macque choux and parsley butter.

The stuff for the parsley butter, butter, garlic and parsley.

 The butter goes in with the garlic.

The garlic butter, waiting for the parsley.

The rest of the stuff.  Red Pepper, parsley, cream, beacon, corn, onions, lobster, red potatoes, green Onions, thyme, sugar and chicken broth.

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Frying off the bacon.

Potatoes, onions and red pepper get the meaty delicousness of bacon fat.

The rest of the ingredients join the party.

I split and seared off the lobster tail.

The final plate.

Curry version 2.0

Another curry dish, this one the red version.  Honestly, this one was a lot better than the green.  Much sweeter and just a lot more flavor in general.

It looks like a lot, but nothing unusual here.  Basil and mint, brown sugar, fish sauce, prepared red curry sauce (I would have like to make my own but unless you're growing your own peppers red chiles are tough to come by), red pepper, snow peas, shrimp, lime, pineapple and coconut milk,

When making this dish you DO NOT want to shake the can of coconut milk.  The cream on top goes into the pan with a bit of oil and the curry past.

The actual coconut milk, fish sauce and sugar went in and got simmered for about 5 minutes.

Then the shrimp and pineapple go in.

Then the snow peas and red pepper.

The final plate.