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Food is Life! Let's Come Back to The Table and Enjoy It Together.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Cheese Steak



So I like cheese steak but can not stand greasy, messy philly style cheese steaks! Here is my take on this dish.

Ingredients:
Steak thinly sliced, I use sirloin steak.
Boars Head White American Cheese
Green bell pepper sliced
Red bell pepper sliced
Sweet onion
Lightly toasted hoagie buns
Freshly grated black peppercorn
Sea Salt
olive oil
Diced garlic cloves

Step 1
Sear steak on high heat with olive oil, pepper, salt, and garlic. Take off fire, place cheese on top, cover and let sit for about 5-6 minutes, the hear will melt the cheese. Keep covered until you are ready to place the steak on the bun. Place sweet potato fries in oven.

Step 2:
On high heat stir fry the onion and bell pepper just by themselves. You want to lock in the flavors and the nutrients. These veggies should still be crunchy.

Step 3:
Toast buns, place stir fried veggies on the bun with beef and cheese, take out fries and place on the side.

Bon Appetit

Monday, October 18, 2010

Shrimp and Veggie Low Mein with Fried Spring Roll



So this is a ghetto version of this dish as the only noodle I could get a hold of on a Sunday was linguine. The Asian store I go to was not open bummer, because I love thicker rice noodles for this dish. Regardless it turned out awesome.

Asian cooking: If you do not use a wok, please start too! It is an amazing utility when cooking Asian foods!

Ingredients:
Spring roll wrappers, thinner than egg roll wrappers
Thinly sliced carrots
Napa cabbage
Cleaned and deveined medium fresh shrimp
Sweet onion
Red bell pepper
Thai basil
3 diced garlic cloves
2 Tbsp oyster sauce
2 Tbsp sesame oil
Precooked noodles either linguine or rice noodle
Mae Ploy sweet chili sauce
3 Tbsp peanut oil

Step 1
Prep spring rolls, follow directions on the bag, you must wet them in order to work with them or they will crack and fall apart. I buy already sliced carrot sticks. Rinse and chop your Napa cabbage. Roll cabbage and carrots into wrapper, you will have to practice to get it perfect, it may not be as easy as it seems for you. Do not get upset if you break a wrapper they are cheap. Do not let them touch. Place in hot peanut oil until golden brown.

Step 2
Pre cook your noodles ahead of time, it saves time in cooking. Heat up sesame oil and make sure it is nice and hot, add noodles, oyster sauce, onion, bell pepper, and garlic, stir fry! At the last minute throw in the Thai basil, stir fry for about 30 seconds more.

Step 3
Drain excess oil from spring rolls, place on plate, add sweet chili sauce and low mein. Let me know if you like it!

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Tempura Chicken Breast, Jasmine Rice, and Stir Fry Veggies


Another take on tempura, same premade batter, it was soooo good!

Ingredients:
Halved chicken breasts
Fresh green beans
Orange bell pepper
Red sweet pepper
Jasmine rice
Sesame seed
Light Sesame seed oil
Peanut Oil
Honey (not clove)unless you like the taste, which I detest!
3 cloves diced garlic
2 Tbsp fish sauce
1 Tbsp soy sauce
2.5 tbsp coconut palm sugar
1.5 Tbsp lime juice
Mccormick Tempura batter (follow directions)

Precooking: place fish sauce, soy sauce, sugar, garlic, 1 Tbsp sesame oil, and lime juice into a bowl, marinate chicken overnight in this mixture

Step 1:
Start cooking your rice. If you do not have a rice cooker, get one!

Step 2:
Prepare tempura batter, take chicken out of marinade and place into bater, coat well. Fry in peanut oil until golden brown. Drain extra oil from chicken.

Step 3:
In another pan stir fry veggies with a dash of soy sauce and sesame oil. A pinch of palm sugar tops it off.

Step 4:
Place veggies and chicken over jasmine rice, drizzle honey and sesame seed and enjoy!

Tempura Beef and Rice Noodle My Way!



So I like to try new things and this turned out amazing, everyone gobbled it down, they wanted more when it was all gone.

Ingredients:
1 bunch thin rice noodle
2 lbs thinly sliced beef steak
Tempura Batter, I cheated this time and bought tempura batter, just follow the directions, its way easy
Sesame seeds
Hard chow mein noodles
2 Tbsp fish sauce
2 Tbsp soy sauce
2.5 Tbsp coconut palm sugar
1.5 Tbsp lime juice
2 Tbsp red pepper flakes, korean style, this is not spicy
Peanut oil
Light Sesame Oil
Honey (not clover)
Fresh prepared green beans

Step 1:
Boil water, place rice noodles in water, turn off heat, cover, and let sit for about 6-7 minutes or until noodles are done. Drain and add cold water, this will stop the cooking process. Let sit in this water until ready to use. Prepare the tempura batter.

Step 2:
On high heat sear beef with 1 tbsp soy sauce and sesame oil, let cool, and place into tempura batter. Coat well and place into hot peanut oil, fry until golden brown on the outside. Set to drain excess oil in colander sitting over a place covered with paper towel.

Step 3: Steam green beans with some black pepper and sesame seeds

Step 3:
Mix fish sauce, palm sugar, lime juice, red pepper flakes, and sauce together well
Take three hand fulls of noodles, let the excess water drip off, place in pan with some light sesame oil, add sauce mixture above, stir fry until noodles soak up all the sauce.

Step 4:
place noodles first, then tempura beef, then chow mein noodles and sesame seed, drizzle honey over the top. Set steamed green beans off the side. This has an amazing taste, enjoy!

Double Cheese Steak Burger, Fries, and Fresh Green Beans




So this is an amazing dish, easy to cook, and mouth watering

Ingredients:
2 lbs thinly sliced beef steak
1 Tbsp black pepper
Sea salt to taste
Cream cheese
White american cheese (do not buy cheap store brand american cheese)
Jamaican hellfire pepper sauce, usually made with scotch bonnet peppers
French hamburger buns
Fresh green beans cleaned and stems taken off.
Alexa sweet potato fries
3 cloves garlic diced
1 Tbsp butter, not anything else
Cooking oil spray

Precooking: Start cooking the fries now! Follow directions on the back of the bag.

Step 1:
Coat a frying pan with oil spray, sear beef with salt and pepper, cover with lid to keep warm and set to the side

Step 2:
Mix cream cheese and hot sauce, blend well. Add as much hot sauce to the cream cheese as you need to have a slight flavor of the hot sauce, this will not be too spicy, just make sure you add until the cream cheese has a hint of the sauce

Step 3:
Lightly toast bun and melt american cheese onto it. Spread cream cheese on the other half. Place beef on the bun.

Step 4:
While preparing the sandwich, put onto boil green beans for 7 minutes, remove and place immediately in cold water, drain and place into pan with butter and garlic, saute until green beans have a slight crunch, usually around 5-6 minutes.

Note: keep an eye on your fries, sweet potato fries do not cook like regular fries do, they will burn if you are not careful faster than the regulars.

Step 5:
Place the sandwich, fries, and green beans on your plate chomp down! It is so good.

Coconut Curry Rice Noodle and Chicken


If you can not tell by now I love Thai food and this is something that was taught to me by my friend's mom growing up who was Thai.

Ingredients:
1 bunch thin rice noodle
2 thinly sliced flank steak
2 orange bell pepper cut into thin strips
3 diced garlic cloves
1 small sweet onion diced
1.5 cup coconut milk
3 Tbsp red curry paste, you can find my recipe for this on the blog
1 Tbsp light sesame oil

Step 1:
Stir fry beef in sesame oil with garlic and onion until beef is almost done

Step 2:
Boil some water, turn heat off and place rice noodle inside the pot, cover with lid and let sit for 6 minutes or so, the noodles will cook, test to see if they are done, if not replace lid and continue to let sit. Drain water, refill pot with fresh water, set off to the side. The noodles should be cool enough in the cold water to lift out by hand. When placing the noodles in the pan with the beef let most of the water run off them before you put them into the pan. This will keep the noodles from sticking.

Step 3:
Add just a tad more sesame oil to beef, add rice noodles, bell pepper, and stir fry around until you see a tad bit of golden coloration on the noodles, add coconut milk, cook for another 5 minutes, take off fire and eat up it yummy

Hawaiian Chicken Melt



So I love I good sandwich and I tried something a bit different. It turned out awesome and very tasty.

Ingredients:
3-4 cups fresh cubbed pineapple
French baguette rolls
3 thawed chicken breast
1 Tbsp finely chopped fresh ginger
2 diced garlic cloves
1/2 Tsp black pepper
1.5 Tbsp peanut oil
1 Tbsp reduced sodium soy sauce
3 Tbsp honey (no clover honey)
Kraft sesame seed ginger dressing
Provolone cheese
Olive Oil

Step 1:
Stir fry chicken, garlic, ginger, black peper, soy sauce, canola oil, and pineapple on high heat. Cook until chicken is almost done, turn down heat, add honey, and finish by reducing the honey. Honey has a good amount of moisture in it, you want to thicken a bit, but make sure to not burn it.

Step 2:
Lightly brush olive oil onto bread and lightly toast in oven. Add cheese to melt and pull out, set aside.

Step 3:
Place chicken on toasted bread with melted cheese, smother with kraft sesame ginger dressing. Eat up!!!