Ginger Sesame Tuna Steak

So tasty and so fast. Fresh ginger gives it zing and a touch of toasted sesame oil makes it a pungent and pleasing meal.

That's about one inch of fresh ginger I grated into a bowl. 

Season your tuna steaks with salt and let a pan get nice and hot with TBSP of grapeseed oil (or olive oil) and a splash (maybe 1/2 tsp) of sesame oil.

Add your tuna in, seasoned-side down, and cook about 2 minutes per side depending on thickness. Remember you want it to finish still pink inside before you take it off the heat.

Once I had flipped the tuna I added the grated ginger to the pan so it could infuse the oil in the pan and get into the tuna.

Finish by sprinkling with sesame seeds (I used black sesame seeds) and drizzle with the ginger-sesame oil.

In the background is some leftover avocado purée, as tuna & avocado are a fabulous pairing, but if you had a regular avocado, just slicing it and giving it a spritz of lime juice and a sprinkle of salt would make a nice creamy accompaniment.

This was a definitely a successful dinner to keep in mind the next time tuna steaks go on sale!

Quinoa Satay

No, this is not a post with quinoa somehow impaled on a skewer. Rather it is the use of leftover beef satay, served over quinoa with red spring onion and broccoli*.

I love Thai satay of all kinds: chicken, shrimp, beef - all are tasty, and all would work in this dish. (Just use the chicken stock if you make it with chicken or shrimp, rather than the beef stock I use here.) When I order-in, I frequently get extra orders just so I can have leftovers. And while meat on a stick is very tasty and can make a quick protein snack, this is a way to make a more rounded out meal out of your leftover satay.

*Yes, I make a lot of dishes with broccoli. I happen to really like broccoli, it's very healthy, and I can usually get 2 bunches for about $2-3, so it's a fairly cheap vegetable for how many servings it yields as well. Subsitute whatever you like. Snow peas, sugar snap peas, water chestnuts, bok choy, or bamboo shoots would all go very well in this dish as well.

I start by steaming a bit of broccoli for 2-3 minutes in a few TBSP of water with a pinch of salt. When I remove the lid, most of the water has already boiled/evaporated away, so I add a generous splash of olive oil, reduce the heat to medium, and this time threw in some chopped red spring onion. 

Sadly, that is not a ramp, just a spring onion I chose for it's lovely color, and to add a bit more flavor to the dish. It has more kick than a scallion, but is milder than an onion, like a shallot.

Cook with some of the white/red bulb base, finely sliced, and finely chop some of the green scallion-like tops for garnish.

Since I was just cooking for myself, I only used one satay skewer (even tho I show 2 here.) Removing the beef from the stick, I then slice each piece into more manageable bites.

Toss your meat of choice in with the broccoli and onion (which has cooked down a bit) and add just enough of the matching stock (in this case beef) to cover the bottom of the pan.

Turn the heat back up to medium-high to reduce.

The point of the stock is that it will rehydrate and heat through the slightly tired leftover beef, and also allow the wonderful seasonings on the outside of the meat to flavor the vegetables as well, and create a very small amount of sauce.

By now my quinoa has finished cooking. As always, rinse it very well in a fine mesh strainer before cooking it, and I season (this was 1/2 cup dry) with about a tablespoon or so of standard cooking olive oil (you don't want a super fruity flavor competing here) and salt to taste. The salt I add to the water at the start of cooking, and the olive oil I add when there is barely any liquid still covering the cooking quinoa.

I use the quinoa as a base and then pour the rest of the dish and minimal sauce over the top.

Start to finish this is another healthy 15 minute meal.

If you make it for a group it might take a bit longer, only because you would be using more liquid in the last stage of cooking and so it would take a bit longer to reduce down, but even then it probably only takes 20 minutes.

If you know the secrets to the seasonings on a Thai satay dish, by all means add a bit when you add your meat of choice. I can only guess one or two, so I just let the ample flavor that is already there dilute a bit into the sauce, and it still comes out very tasty.

Enjoy.

Tangy Asian Tenderloin

So remember when I wrote about the Tangy Asian Chicken Thighs that I just could not stop eating? No? Ok well look back here.

I knew when I created the marinade that it would be brilliant on pork as well, and last night I tested my theory. And I was right. SO good.
And the same proportions used on 6 chicken thighs worked on one 1.25 pound tenderloin.
3 TBSP honey
2 1/2 TBSP soy sauce
3 cloves of garlic, grated
2 inches of fresh ginger, grated

For my basic How To on cooking a pork tenderloin, see here.

Step one: marinate a few hrs in the fridge. 

Looks kinda gross, I know, but it will be so tasty in the end.

Take the meat out of the fridge and LET IT COME TO ROOM TEMPERATURE. 

Preheat your oven to 400º and set your pan to medium heat w/ just enough olive oil that your meat won't stick. I was using a non-stick pan, so I only used a small drizzle.

Slapdash photo, I know.

Cook on the first side seven minutes.

Then flip and place pan in the oven for another seven minutes.

Remove from pan and let rest, and place the leftover marinade in the hot pan to reduce to a delicious sauce. Remember to cover the pot handle with something, as that sucker has been in a 400º oven.

Super crap photo. Apologies.

Just like last time I served this with some seasoned quinoa, and roasted a mix of broccoli and cauliflower, because that's what I had goin' on in my fridge.

For the quinoa (keen-wah): follow package instructions, and when it is done but still in the hot pan, I sprinkle in some kosher salt and good olive oil. For this meal, I also mixed about a tablespoon of honey with a tablespoon of soy sauce, and poured that mixture over the hot quinoa and stirred well to combine. That made it so the quinoa also had a sweet and tangy flavor that tied it into the meal, but not the ginger/garlic bite that the pork had.

For the mixed veg: cut up your stalks into medium sized florets, drizzle with olive oil and salt, and roast in a 400-425º oven for 20 minutes. Done.

I don't know if this is like the time I was ordering spring rolls from the local Thai place 2-3 times a week for a solid month before OD-ing on them, but I cannot get enough of this marinade at the moment.

And the leftover pork would make a killer sandwich... maybe a panini on ciabatta with some extra sauce and some grilled eggplant. Hmmm... will have to look into that in the future ;)

Chinese Chicken & Spinach Soup

It has been an average of 92º or higher since about May 20th and I am REALLY READY FOR THE HEAT WAVE TO GO HOME! Especially because I have been craving soup for the last solid week, but without arctic air conditioning options, *soup is rather out the window.

*Soup can be cold and still be delicious. However, the blush fell off that rose back in July... I want to cook vats of comfort food in my kitchen without losing 10lbs in water weight standing over the stove, which would lead to fainting which would lead to cracked skulls or worse, me a flambé. Generally not a good scenario.

But until it is cold out, this is a quicker cooking soup that you can probably pull off and enjoy while it is still excessively warm out... especially if you are craving Chinese take-out.

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Have you ever ordered a soup from your local Chinese take-out joint, curled up to enjoy it on the couch, only to find an hour or two later that you feel achey and ill all over from all the MSG that they snuck in there?

No?
It's just me?
Oh.
Well... after that happened to me I decided to try and recreate the simple chicken and spinach soup that I had ordered and enjoyed up until the part where my body and stomach starting aching.

I have no idea how they make the broth pale and clear and yet so flavorful. Maybe it's the MSG. Maybe it's something they don't post in any of the ingredients when you do a search for "Chinese Chicken Soup" I don't know. I just know that my soup came out much darker.
But I'm ahead of myself already.

I started out by gently sautéing some boneless skinless chicken thighs (for more flavor than you'd find in a chicken breast...), seasoned with salt, in some garlic and olive oil. I would recommend making the chicken as flavorful as you can before adding it to the soup, as it can only enhance what you've got going on once in the pot.
Once that cooled I removed what fat I could and then sliced it into bite-sized strips.

For the broth of the soup I used a low-sodium organic chicken stock and added to it roughly 2 tablespoons of low-sodium soy sauce and half a teaspoon of sesame oil. I then added a little less than a tablespoon of grated ginger, and brought the whole thing up to a simmer.

Next I added the chicken back in, as well as a few heaping handfuls of fresh baby spinach (whole). Check for seasoning and add a little salt if needed. (Doubtful if you used regular soy sauce.)

Options at this point: you could add some minced chili or spicy aspect of choice. You could beat an egg and scramble it into your hot soup. You could also mince up some scallion and add that to the soup, or even garnish with fresh cilantro or Thai basil.

Really, whatever makes you happy. But there are many options.

I just went for the simplest version that I was trying to reproduce, and while it was not perfect, it was still quite tasty. And no MSG hangover later. Which is a BIG plus in my book.

Stir-Fry Friday

So this past Friday I was faced with a common dilemma: 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts and zero inspiration for how to turn them into a tasty meal. I was in a rut.

Luckily, tho, my rut had a plethora of interesting fresh herbs either growing or in the fridge, including basil, cilantro, thyme, and mint. So really I could go in any geographic direction I chose.

And I chose Asian, leaning toward Thai. (I think.)

I had on hand carrots, garlic, soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger, and pasta (since most of those are in my pantry or fridge at all times) as well as limes, because it is still Summer and one must always have fresh limes on hand for margaritas. Always.

I decided to pick up the following from the store: sugar snap peas, scallions, and a jalapeño pepper or two. Now I was set for a seriously tasty supper that was nowhere near what I usually serve up.

(Read: outside of comfort zone)

This will be some of the worst photography, as I kept forgetting to take pictures and then was too rushed to really focus properly...

I peeled and chopped about 6 carrots into some sort of stick, something between what you would snack on with a crudité platter and a matchstick. I wasn't being terribly precise. The mentality was that they would cook as quickly as the sugar snap peas.

I also used a microplane on two enormous cloves of garlic, about 2 tablespoons of fresh ginger, and I minced about half a seeded jalapeño pepper. (Add more if you like your meals spicy. I was just aiming for a general warmth down the throat, and nailed it.)

In a couple tablespoons of peanut oil (or grape-seed oil, or vegetable oil) I sautéed the chicken until almost fully cooked through, and then added the garlic and ginger. 

Once that had cooked off a bit, I added the minced jalapeño, 1/4 cup of soy sauce, as well as 2 teaspoons of sesame oil, and 2 tablespoons of fresh lime juice.

If there is not enough liquid in the pan for your liking (remember there will be pasta in there later soaking up the sauce) you can add another 1/4 cup of either chicken stock, or just water.

While all of that was happening I had a pot of water on the boil, and was blanching my carrots and sugar snap peas, ready to stir fry them in turn. 

Once they had cooked for about 5 minutes I took them out of the water, brought it all back up to a boil, and cooked my capellini for 2 and a half minutes.

(As I was cooking 3 chicken breasts, I made enough pasta to serve about 3 people.)

Once the pasta is cooked, add it to the pan of chicken, cook for an additional minute, and add about 1/4 cup of chopped fresh cilantro and chopped scallion. Then either plate it up or just set it aside. I had to plate it up as I needed my frying pan for round 2.

In the same pan, without even washing it, I added another splash of oil, one clove of minced garlic, and about a teaspoon of fresh ginger I'd grated on the microplane. (Sound familiar? This is basically a quicker version of what I did to the chicken in smaller proportions and sans jalapeño.)

Once the garlic and ginger have become aromatic (about a minute) I added the vegetables,  another 1/4 cup or so of soy sauce, barely one teaspoon of sesame oil, and a spritz from a lime wedge.

Toss to combine, and top with another 2 tablespoons of fresh chopped cilantro.

I finished the dish with some black sesame seeds I found in my spice cabinet, extra cilantro and scallion, and a wedge of lime.

I chose to serve the vegetables on the side, but you could combine the whole thing like a proper stir-fry if you wanted to. Either way, this dish was packed with flavor and a really enjoyable change-up from my usual go-to dinner solutions. It also provided some tasty leftovers.

I urge any avid cooks out there to expand outside of their familiar recipe zone once a month or so. After you get a feel for ingredients that you use less often, you'll find yourself incorporating them more and more often with more confidence and turning your kitchen into your own Fusion Food Café.

I've been experimenting with jalapeños of late because I've never been one for spicy food. But now I'm finding ways to use them sparingly and (literally) spicing up some of my more traditional meals.

Go nuts!

My Your Thighs Look Tasty

So I'd had about 6 boneless skinless chicken thighs in my fridge, and really wanted to do something delicious with them. This is another case of It Was On Sale, Now What Do I Do With It?
With a little internet searching and a lot of exasperation, I came up with the following fabulous feast.

Tangy Asian-Inspired Chicken Thighs over Quinoa, with Honey-Ginger Glazed Carrots
YUM!
YUM to the TENTH DEGREE!!!
Did I mention how delicious this absurdly simple chicken recipe is?
Because it was supremely flavorful.

For the chicken thighs, the marinade/sauce is as follows:
3 TBSP honey
2 1/2 TBSP of soy sauce
3 grated/minced cloves of garlic
2 inches of fresh ginger, grated

No salt needed, due to the soy sauce. And do NOT substitute dried ginger for the fresh. It will not have anywhere near the same kick or flavor.

This created a rather thick sauce, so I rubbed it directly on the chicken thighs with my hands, to make sure it was evenly distributed. I covered the container with cling film and put it in the fridge to marinate for a few hours.

To cook, I placed the chicken thighs in a small amount of olive oil in a nonstick pan, cooking about 6 minutes on the first side, and maybe only 3 on the second. I was truly eye-balling this, and not watching the clock, so those numbers are estimations at best.
DO NOT WASTE THE MARINADE!!!
Once you have cooked all your chicken, pour/scrape the extra marinade into the frying pan and pick up all the brown bits from the pan and reduce until a pleasant color and consistency. Pour over chicken thighs.

For the carrots:
Four carrots, diced into equal sized sticks.
In a small sauce pan I put 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Add to that 1 inch of freshly grated ginger, and about 4 tablespoons of honey. Melt together and stir.
Add 1/4 cup water, and then the carrots, and cook on medium-high for about 8 minutes, lid on, until carrots are tender. Then remove the lid and cook off liquids.
Carrots will come out supremely sweet and tender, with a gentle kick from the ginger.

Carrots at the boiling-off-the-liquid stage

For the Quinoa:
Follow package instructions. (2 cups water to 1 cup rinsed quinoa, bring to boil and them simmer 10-15 minutes.) I then add a pinch or two of salt and drizzle with olive oil. Maybe 2 tablespoons worth.
The quinoa was really just a healthy bed to place the chicken on.

Quinoa with all water absorbed and fluffed with a spoon.

Simple assembly on the plate, and I'm telling you, this chicken was ADDICTIVE. I'm so glad I made extra, because having it for lunch the next day was like reliving heaven.

Sure, I may have been burping tangy ginger breath the rest of the night (blamed on the bubbles from The Marquis, not the actual dish) but it was just so good!!!

Really, if you are reading this, you must try this soon. I will definitely be adding it to my regular dinner option routine.

(Note - this would also work beautifully on pork.)

Enjoy!

I certainly did.

Leftovers, Asian Style

Having played with fire and not left any delicious ducky leftovers for lunch today, I thought I'd talk about one of my tricks to reviving that carton of fried rice you shoved in the back of the fridge over the weekend.

So everyone has ordered too much Chinese food and then had leftovers that don’t quite rejuvinate back to an enjoyable state. I mean, we've all tried to nuke fried rice and ended up with some soft and some hard and crunchy grains. (Or cook it in a pot with a little water, but then the flavor dilutes and the rice ends up soggy.) It's not very enjoyable, and most of it gets thrown away in the end.
If you want to take the next step past nuking w/ a bit of water in the microwave, here is my method for bringing Asian leftovers back to tasty, tasty life.  (I opt for a non-stick pan for this.)

*This works best with things like fried rice or lo mein, but I recently did this with some leftover Thai Chow Fun and it was great.

Ideal step one: Sauté a fresh vegetable to restart your dish. My Thai food had a Chinese broccoli in it, so I used regular broccoli. (You know you picked out most of the tasty bits the first time you ate it.) You could also use grated carrot & cabbage, or anything that relates to what was already used in the dish..

I sauté the veg in a very small amount of both evoo (or veg oil) AND sesame oil. Be very sparing with the sesame, because that stuff is super strong, but it will help tie in and refresh the flavor of your leftovers.

Once that has cooked a bit (for broccoli it’s probably about 5 minutes) I drizzle with a tiny splash of soy sauce, but then I throw in about 1/4 cup of water. This will sizzle but the point is to create steam to soften up your leftover rice, etc.  Let the water sizzle a moment or so and then toss in whatever leftover rice or noodles you are trying to reheat. Stir it up and move it around until the water is dissolved/evaporated and your food looks just about ready to remove from the heat. (If you're reheating rice, you may want to cover the dish for a minute to steam, and then cook off the excess liquid.)

That is when you add in a beaten egg or two. There is almost always egg in any stir-fry that you get, and let’s face it: as I said before, you totally ate most of the good parts out of your rice/lo mein when you first ordered it, so you need to put something else tasty and protein-based in your leftovers. An egg works perfectly. If you are reheating fried rice, throwing in some frozen peas at this point is a good move as well.

Check your seasonings, as you may want another splash of soy sauce, but otherwise, your leftovers should have come back to life and be ready to eat at this point. 
As the carton tells you, Thank You & Enjoy!

Teriyaki Done Right

Oscar Night and I was cooking during all the red carpet setup (and Mike played video games). But I have a few thoughts on what I saw:
Someone tell Miley Cyrus to stand up straight. And stop acting/singing/speaking. Seriously.
Kate Winslet looked stunning in a silver column, channeling Veronica Lake with frizz-proof hair and great poise. That woman is gorgeous.
Poor Sandra Bullock had under-done eyes and waaaaaaaaaay too dark lipstick. Undecided as to how I feel about her dress, but congrats to her for her accomplishment.
George Clooney needs the back of his hair cut.
John Travolta wore JEANS as a presenter. I really hope there was some kind of accident and someone threw up on his tux pants and it was an emergency change, because otherwise that is NOT cool.
Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin randomly changed from bow ties to long ties halfway through the show... I'm sorry boys but that doesn't count as a costume change. Whoopi has your ass beat.

So, Teriyaki Hanger Steak & more roasted potatoes. Luckily, I do not have to fit into a slinky dress, and can instead blog in my pajamas. And eat steak and potatoes.

I admit right off that I use the Fresh Direct brand teriyaki marinade. I think it has fantastic flavor (frankly the Kikkoman blows) but it is still lacking something. So, I grate about an inch of fresh ginger into the bottom of the pan I'm going to marinate the steak in, and then add the liquid. Makes a huge difference.

This disgusting strip of tendon runs down the middle of my hanger steaks, and I always remove it before cooking because it is completely impossible to eat, and I hate dealing with it when I'm trying to scarf down my delicious teriyaki steak.

Because I do this, I end up slicing my steak into smaller serving sizes. If you are following along with this to do it yourself, keep that in mind when you try to cook your steak. I am cooking much smaller pieces, and so you might have to adjust your cooking times.

*I marinate this overnight, turning it once when I get up the next day

I generally brown one side of the meat in a little evoo for about 6-7 minutes, and then flip the meat and toss it into the oven at 400º for another 7 minutes, and my steak usually comes out rare to medium-rare, depending on the size of the hunks. Tonight, they were very small.

Once I move the steak to the pan to cook, I then pour all the marinade into a smaller pan and turn that sucker on high to reduce down. As it starts to boil, give it a stir so nothing burns on the bottom.

I'm serious about cranking the flame to reduce the sauce. Because of how fast cooking the steak is in this form, the sauce will actually take exactly that long, if not longer, to get to the "sludge" consistency that you're aiming for.

I also made roasted potatoes to go with the steak tonight, but this time I did not use duck fat. This was just my usual go-to roasted potatoes. Drizzle evoo, healthy sprinkle of salt, some fresh thyme sprigs, a crushed clove of garlic, and about a tablespoon of butter broken up. 400º until at your level of crispness - usually 30-45 minutes, turning once halfway through.
*Remove the garlic when you flip the potatoes because otherwise it will burn and turn everything bitter.

As everything finishes cooking, hopefully your sauce will have reached "sludge" status. You should be able to move it to the side of the pan without it sliding back as proof that it has reduced enough.

And yes, I nuked peas because the rest of the meal was enough work, and Mike really likes peas, and the Oscars were starting.

Presto! A meal that most of the starved actresses on my TV last night would trample their personal assistants for. And rightly so, because hanger steak is super tender, very flavorful, and actually a really good bargain. Maybe one day I'll finish it with grilled pineapple or some such fancy note, but right now, this version makes us happy.
Enjoy!