Hoisin Stir Fry

I do love a good stir fry. This dish hit the spot and it had the added appeal of having a simple and easy sauce (no messing around with cornstarch to thicken it up). The hoisin sauce adds and interesting flavor and the red pepper flakes add some zip. I was a tad lazy and picked up a pre-made stir fry package from the produce section of WF. They have an amazing variety of combinations and the price wasn't awful.

Hoisin Beef and Veggie Stir Fry

(adapted from Real Simple)

Ingredients:
Rice, desired amount
3/4 cup hoisin sauce

1/2 cup water
1.5 tablespoons soy sauce
1.5 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 pound flank or boneless sirloin steak, sliced into thin strips

Salt & pepper
Desire Veggies (I used mushrooms/snap peas/asparagus/shallots)

Oil for stir frying

Directions:
1. Cook the rice according to the package directions. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine the hoisin sauce, ½ cup water, soy sauce, sugar, and red pepper flakes.
2. Bring hoisin mixture to a boil. Cook, stirring occasionally, until sauce thickens slightly, about 1½ minutes. Pour into a bowl. Set aside.
3. Season steak with salt and pepper.

4. Heat a wok or large skillet over high heat. Add 2 tablespoons oil and heat for 30 seconds. Add the steak and stir-fry until cooked through, 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer to a plate.
5. Wipe out pan and add more oil. Stir fry the veggies until done.
6. Return steak to wok with veggies and add the hoisin mixture. Stir-fry until warmed through, about 1 minute. Serve immediately over rice.

Pre-sauce!

Mongolian Beef

Yum yum! This one was yummy but it took a little bit of work. I had a large flank steak so I had to cook the meat in multiple batches and it made a splattery mess. The sauce is a keeper but next time I would use it with a regular stir fry that uses less oil. On the plus side my wok was marvelous and everything slide right off it, go Wicket! We served it up with some brown rice and steamed broccoli. Healthy and delicious.

Mongolian Beef

(Pinterest find! adapted from justataste.com)

Ingredients:
Vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce
1/2 cup water
2/3 cup dark brown sugar
1 (1-pound) flank steak
1/4 cup cornstarch
Directions:
1. Heat 2 teaspoons vegetable oil in a small saucepot over medium-low heat. Add the ginger and garlic and sauté until golden, about 2 minutes. Add the soy sauce and water, stirring to combine.
2. Stir in the brown sugar and increase the heat to medium. Bring the sauce to a boil for 3 minutes. Remove the sauce from the heat and set aside.
3. Slice the flank steak against the grain into 1/4-inch pieces, then toss it with the cornstarch. Place the coated pieces of steak in a sieve and shake off any excess cornstarch. Allow the steak to sit 10 for minutes.
3. Place a large sauté pan or wok over medium-high heat and add 1/2 cup vegetable oil. Once the oil is hot, add the beef to the pan and sauté for 2 minutes until it is seared on all sides but barely cooked in the center. Remove the steak from the pan with a slotted spoon and transfer it onto a paper towel-lined plate. Pour any excess oil out of the wok.
4. Place the sauté pan back over medium heat. Add the prepared sauce to the hot pan, then add the reserved steak and cook at a boil, stirring constantly, 2 minutes. Serve!

I had the coolest lunch at the table today in school!

Corned Beef is Chewy

The glaze for this recipe was amazing and could be used on other cuts of meat. The corned beef was a pain in the bottom. I have made corned beef before in the crockpot and it was fine but this simmer and baking method did not soften it enough. Mr. Lawyer still ate the whole thing, I was hoping for lunch leftovers, so I guess it tasted so good the chewing was worth it? If I were to make this again I would try to use the sauce with the crockpot method. 

Glazed Corned Beef

(adapted from allrecipes.com)

Ingredients:4 1/2 pounds corned beef, rinsed
1 cup apricot preserves
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
Directions:

1. Simmer corned beef in water with seasoning packet according to directions, normally around three hours.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

3. Coat a large pan with non-stick cooking spray. Place corned beef in dish.

4. In a small bowl combine apricot preserves, brown sugar, and soy sauce. Spread the apricot mixture evenly over the corned beef.

5. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees 25 to 30 minutes, or until the meat is tender; basting occasionally with pan drippings.
6. Slice corned beef across grain and serve.

Wonky Wok

Tonight my darling wok Wicket and I had a date. We also had a minor disagreement regarding how he *IS* well seasoned and my food should not be sticking to him. Blerg. I would really hate to have to scrub him down and re-season him from scratch.

Wicket in action

Pros: this recipe was quick, simple and required minimal ingredients. I only had to pick up the meat and green beans. Lots of green beans! Slicing the meat so thin makes it seem like there is a lot more than there is, love being cheap!
Cons: no sauce (personal preference) and minimal flavor level on the green beans. The meat picked up the fish sauce and ginger/garlic nicely but it slid right off the green beans.

Overall I'd give it a B, good but nothing to rave about. If I made it again I would definitely cut the green beans in half, they were a bit unwieldy. I also seem to have my beef stir-fry method down. The beef was tender and flavorful. The key is to pull it out when it's still a little pink (about 3 minutes this time) because it will continue to cook when you throw it back in with the veggies. Sidenote: WF was out of skirt steak so the nice butcher man recommended a flat iron steak. It was delicious and only five dollars for half a pound.

Thai Steak Stir-Fry

(from Everyday Food Magazine)

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2 pound skirt steak, cut against the grain into think strips
1 pound fresh green beans, trimmed and sliced in half
4 tablespoons fresh minced ginger
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons fish sauce (or soy)
1 cup fresh basil, torn
2 cups cooked rice, for serving
Directions:
1. Freeze the meat for 15 minutes before slicing. It will be easier to cut thinly.
2. In a wok or large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add steak and cook, stirring, until browned, about 3-4 minutes. Transfer steak to a plate.
3. Add green beans, ginger, and garlic, and cook, stirring, until green beans are crisp-tender, about 5 minutes.
4. Return beef to wok and add fish sauce and basil. Cook 1 more minute. Serve with rice

Mega Monster Man Burgers

Mr. Lawyer misses cooking and I miss him cooking for me! So my new weekend plan is to kick back, relax, and have him make something yummy! And that is exactly what he did (well, I whipped up some baked beans). We played with new toys to grind our own burger meat. I think he used sirloin. He also made me crop him out of this picture.

The burgers were AMAZING. They were so soft and just melted in your mouth. The boy insists that this is the only way we will do burgers from now on. If he wants to make them then I'm okay with that! Of course because he is a boy he didn't actually measure anything but I did get a list of ingredients. The burgers were huge and manly. And super messy. And completely delicious.

Mega Monster Man Burgers!

(from the Boy)

Ingredients:

1.5 pounds freshly ground meat

Cabot Cheese

Red Pepper Flakes

Garlic Powder

Onion Powder

Worcestershire Sauce

1 egg

Panko Bread Crumbs

Directions:

1. Mix it all together and form huge burgers!

Spicy Stir Fry

Only one Valentine's flower left so I moved it to a new vase, recycling at it's finest!

Tonight Wicket and I got busy and whipped up some stir fry. I'm guessing it was good because there aren't any leftovers. I used the Szechuan sauce I had in the freezer from my sauce making party. I was worried it was going to be too spicy because when I tasted it it was all POW! But once it was mixed with the meat and veggies the spice dissipated. It would slowly build instead of being all in your face. 

Spicy Beef and Broccoli

Ingredients:

1 1/ 2 teaspoons sesame oil
1/ 2 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
1/ 2 teaspoon minced garlic
1/ 2 cup chicken broth
1 1/ 2 teaspoon red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/ 2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon hoisin sauce (didn't have, so I added a spot of honey)
1/8 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
1/ 8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/ 4 teaspoon pepper
1/ 8 teaspoon 5 spice powder
2 teaspoons cornstarch dissolved in 1 Tablespoon water

Beef, cut in strips

Broccoli

Directions:
1. Heat the oil in a small saucepan. Add the ginger and garlic and saute 1 minute until softened but not browned.
2. In a bowl combine the remaining except for the cornstarch mixture. Add them to the saucepan and bring to a simmer, covered, for 10 minutes.
3. Whisk in the cornstarch mixture and let boil 1-2 minutes.

4. Meanwhile heat your wok and add beef, 4-5 minutes until cooked.

5. Remove beef, set aside. Stir fry broccoli. 

6. Return beef to wok with broccoli and add sauce. Stir till coated. Serve!

Boy Meets Stew

Obviously February is not my month for kitchen inspiration. Throw in this lingering cold and before you know it my poor kitchen is languishing away. Luckily for me a very cute lawyer has stepped up to the plate the past few days to make me homemade cookies, order me dumplings from downstairs, make waffles and turkey bacon, and make a whole crock pot of beef stew which has sustained us for three days. Oh yeah, and get me pretty orange flowers (and not for Valentines!).

Simple set up: beef, potatoes, green pepper, onion, and a beef stew spice packet. The crock pot is essential because the beef was all nice and fall apart tender which doesn't always happen if you make it quickly in a pot.

On a Stick!

Another Party Post! This recipe was always a special treat for the Dork and I growing up. I'm not quite sure why....it's simple and quick! This was one of the top disappearing dishes at the party. Make sure you soak the bamboo skewers in water so they don't catch on fire or anything....

Marinated Beef on a Stick!

(from the Mother Unit)

Ingredients:
1.5 pounds boneless top sirloin
2 teaspoons canola oil
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger (I also added some fresh grated ginger too!)
Directions:
1. Cut steak across the grain in 1/4 inch slices.
2. Mix everything in a bowl and add steak. Cover and refrigerate for 1-2 hours.
3. Weave strips onto skewers then grill 4-6 inches from coals, turning once. Cook until browned (4-5 minutes total for medium rare). Or broil in oven until cooked.

Stir Frying Beast!

I finally gathered up the guts to stir fry meat. I decided on beef because if you mess up and it's kind of raw you'll be okay. It was also on sale at the grocery store, buy one get one! The frozen stir fry veggies were also on sale. I pulled the General Tso's sauce out of the freezer and it worked out fairly well. My main complaint was that it wasn't as thick and pretty looking as when I made it fresh. I'm assuming this is a freezing/thawing issue. It still tasted amazing.

Technique! In my search for stir fry recipes I've found a couple of tips that are incredible useful. The first is how to slice the meat. A slightly frozen piece of meat will make slicing more easy (this I learned from my mother). To make the perfect sized stir fry pieces cut steak crosswise in 1/2 inch strips and then cut each strip lengthwise. All the pieces will be uniform in size and it's easy to trim all the fat.

The second thing is to take the meat out while it's still a little rare. You'll be throwing it back in with the veggies and sauce so it will finish cooking.

Beef and Pepper Stir Fry

(a hodgepodge of different recipes)

Ingredients:
Beef, sliced into small strips

Choice of veggies (We used frozen peppers and onions)

Choice of stir fry sauce

1 tablespoon peanut oil
2 tablespoons rice vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar)
4 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon peeled, grated fresh ginger

Directions: 

1. Combine vinegar, soy, honey and ginger. Marinate beef for 30+ minutes.

2. Heat oil in wok until smoking. Pat meat dry and stir fry in small batches until brown outside but still rare inside, about 1 minute. Set aside.

3. Add your veggies and stir fry until desired tenderness. We prefer ours a little on the crunchy side.

4. Add in cooked meat and stir fry sauce. Continue to cook until sauce thickens.

Meaty BBQ Meat

The leftover BBQ Pot Roast was better than the original! Pot roast is okay, it's just a bit....well pot roasty. But this leftover bbq stuff was banging. Next time I might just skip the pot roast part and go straight to bbq. I didn't do the onion or chili powder part and I suppose the taste depends on the quality of bbq sauce you get. I was overwhelmed by the choices at the store and had not tried any of the brands present (I'm a Dinosaur or Sweet Baby Ray's girl) so I texted Mr. Lawyer with a variety of choices including apple bourbon and smokey maple. Being a boy he picked the Bone Suckin' Sauce because it "sounded cool". It was good, not too spicy and a little bit sweet which is exactly how I like my bbq.

Tonight was also our building's Christmas party but nothing looked as appetizing as the bbq sandwiches we had waiting for us except for these delicious salads we snagged. One had a cranberry/goat cheese thing going on and the other a sweet onion dressing with almonds. Both were amazing.

Pulled Barbecue Beef Sandwiches

(adapted from allrecipes.com)

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 medium red onion, sliced
1 tablespoon chili powder
3 cups shredded leftover cooked pot roast
1 (18 ounce) bottle Barbecue Sauce
6 Kaiser rolls, split, toasted
Directions:
1. Heat oil in medium skillet or saucepan about 1 minute; add onion. Cook over medium heat 5 minutes, or until onion browns a bit, stirring occasionally. Blend in chili powder.
2. Add shredded pot roast and barbecue sauce. Reduce heat to low and cook about 5 minutes or until bubbling, stirring occasionally.
3. Fill rolls evenly with the meat mixture and serve.

Many Meals Pot Roast

Well, it tasted like a pot roast (which isn't overly exciting) so I guess I win. The original recipe is part of a 3 part series of cooking once and then making two more meals from your leftovers. We definitely have enough sauce/veggies to make the pasta dish but only enough meat for two sandwiches. I very loosely followed this recipe but I plan on trying the subsequent meals. For starters I threw it in the crockpot before work. I also used regular tomatoes so I threw in a bunch of dried basil, oregano and four cloves of garlic. I did not have celery so I subbed that with two diced potatoes. Served up with garlic bread!
Update on the Hootycreek Cookies: Someone named Mr. Lawyer literally ate half of them last night, I put a nice dent in them at breakfast and our neighbor Shannon devoured hers. Can we say keeper?!

A hard dish to make pretty.

Many Meals Pot Roast

(adapted from allrecipes.com)

Ingredients:
4 pounds boneless beef chuck roast
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
2/3 cup chopped celery
2 (14.5 ounce) cans Hunt’s Diced Tomatoes with Basil, Garlic & Oregano, undrained
1 (14 ounce) can beef broth
Directions:
1. Season both sides of roast with salt and pepper. Heat oil in large saucepan or Dutch oven over medium-high heat 1 minute. Add roast; cook 5 minutes on each side, or until browned on both sides. Remove from pan; cover to keep warm. Reduce heat to medium.
2. Add onion, carrot and celery to same pan; cook 5 minutes, or until onion is tender, stirring frequently. Add tomatoes with their liquid and broth; stir in all the browned bits from bottom of pan. Bring to a boil over high heat. Return roast to pan. Cover pan with lid; reduce heat to low.
3. Simmer 3 to 3-1/2 hours, or until roast is fork tender. Remove roast from pan; let stand 10 minutes before portioning.
4. Serve half of roast and sauce for this meal. Use the remaining roast to make Pulled Barbecue Beef Sandwiches and the remaining sauce to make Tuscan-style Penne Pasta.

Or skip all this and throw it in the crockpot!

A Yearning for Home

Our favorite place to end up in Syracuse was Clark's. We spent a large portion of our grad school career there. It was the best bar ever and perfectly mirrored both of our personalities: twenty-two rotating craft beers on tap, one glorious roast beef sandwich, cheese platters from heaven, a real dartboard, never packed, no tvs, no loud music, and most importantly no drunken undergrads. Before I moved down to Philly Kevin just happened to be in town on Clark's final weekend (they were closing down due to their lease being bought out but great news, looks they might reopen in a new location!) and ever since we have been reminiscing and yearning for a Clark's sandwich. Tonight we revisited our grad school years and recreated our Clark's experience!
First up a cheese platter! They had several different types of cheese available but we always went with smoked gouda. It was served up with an entire sleeve of saltines that was hacked in half and a pile of red onions. Weird I know but give it a try!

You need to start with a good base: onion rolls! Smeared with fresh horseradish. Please note the the orange and blue theme. Go 'Cuse!

You need to serve it up with good beer. We used two of our NY brewery pint glasses: Saranac and Wagner. More orange plates!

Next up: create your Clark's sandwich. Onion roll, slice of cheddar cheese, roast beef, onions, and horseradish. So simple, so delicious. Especially after a night out.

We're getting to the recipe part. The beef! A couple of months ago we received a bag of meat from Mr. Lawyers mom (he likes to insert a "that's what she said" joke here). It contained a beef eye of round roast, I had no idea what to do with it. I found this recipe that had rave reviews but also seemed completely outrageous. You turn the oven off after 21 minutes and just leave the roast in there?! Food poisoning abound! But let me tell you it was delicious. Perfectly pink, flavorful and pretty tender. 

High Temperature Eye-of-Round Roast

(adapted from allrecipes.com)

Ingredients:

1(3 lb) beef eye of round roast

Salt, pepper, garlic powder

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees. Season the roast with salt, pepper, and garlic and place in a roasting pan or baking dish (one review suggested making sure the fat was on top so as it melted it was self-bast the roast). Do not cover or add water.
2. Place the roast in the preheated oven. Reduce the temperature to 475 degrees. Roast for 21 minutes (seven minutes per pound) then turn off the oven and let the roast sit in the hot oven for 2 1/2 hours. Do not open the door at all during this time!
3. Remove the roast from the oven, the internal temperature should have reached at least 145 degrees.

4. Carve into thin slices to serve.

Yum!

Onion-Horseradish-Beer breath reminds me of a whole bunch of great nights.

Special Request!

I had a special dinner request from Mr. Lawyer: Spaghetti and Meatballs. This worked out perfectly as there was some frozen ground beef that I wanted to use up. I try to be diligent with the "first in first out" rule but sometimes cravings strike and this poor little package of beef got left behind months ago. I also write the date on everything and double wrap everything. I get laughed at for it but I'm paranoid about stuff like that. Anyway, it seemed like some Wegmans Meatballs were on the menu! It had been a while since I made them so I was excited.

Wegmans Meatballs

(from my lovely Wegmans!)

Ingredients:
1 cup Panko Breadcrumbs
2 large eggs
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup grated Pecorino Romano Cheese
2 tsp minced Garlic
2 Tbsp minced fresh Italian parsley
1 tsp Italian Seasoning (or a dash of oregano/basil)
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 lb 80% Lean Ground Beef
Directions:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
1. Add panko, eggs, water, cheese, garlic, parsley, seasoning, salt, and pepper to large bowl; stir to combine. Add beef; mix by hand until just combined (use the claw! overmixing will toughen meatballs). 

2. Scoop up about 3 Tbsp meat mixture to form balls; smooth by rolling in cupped hands. Arrange meatballs on baking sheet, about 1 1/2-inches apart. 

3. Bake 15-17 min or until internal temp reaches 160 degrees.

I also toasted up some garlic bread and as a little twist I added some finely chopped fresh rosemary to a couple of pieces. It was delicious! You only need a little, too much would be extremely overpowering.

We're Saucy!

So Mr. Lawyer's mom loaded us up with all sorts of goodies this past weekend which included our own tray of eggplant parm (thanks Mrs. T!). I had hoped that it would last us a few days but alas, Mr. Lawyer ate half of it the first night and then had some for breakfast. So it only lasted us two days. Sad story.

Yum!

There was a random comment about eating meatless two nights in a row so I decided to treat the boy plus we had a bunch of peppers (thanks again Mrs. T!). Look at the pretty colors!

When we started cooking together in Syracuse this was one of the first recipes we tried. It's quick, easy and other than the beef and peppers, you probably have everything in your kitchen. It's very versatile: you can eat it with rice or in a tortilla, use whatever color peppers you want, you can easily increase or decrease the amount of peppers or meat, and you can experiment with flavors of bbq sauce. The first time we used brown sugar hickory sauce and this time we used Sweet Baby Ray's, both were delicious.

Saucy Pepper Steak

(Kraft Food and Family Magazine)

Ingredients:

1 each green, red and yellow bell pepper, cut into strips
1 small onion, cut into strips
1 lb. boneless beef sirloin steak, well trimmed, cut into strips
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. black pepper
3 Tbsp. lite soy sauce
1/2 cup Barbecue Sauce
2 cups hot cooked long-grain brown rice
Directions:
1. Heat a large nonstick skillet sprayed with cooking spray on medium-high heat. Add bell peppers and onions, cook for 6 to 8 minutes. Transfer to large bow and keep warm.
2. Add meat, garlic and black pepper to skillet; cook and stir 3 minutes. Add soy sauce; cook 1 minute or until meat is done. Stir in barbecue sauce; cook 2 to 3 min. or until heated through.
3. Combine meat and veggies, serve over rice.

Night 1: with spanish rice!

 Night 2: leftovers on tortillas!

It's hot, we're roasting.

So we made a roast. And by we, I mean mostly Mr. Lawyer. Because it's hot and I'm avoiding the kitchen like the plague. I really liked the pot roast but was less crazy about the gravy. I'm not quite sure what it was that I didn't like. Maybe it was too thin or slightly bitter because of the coffee. The only thing it was lacking was more veggies! I would have loved some carrots or potatoes with it. Also, please admire our new place mats. It only took us seven months to agree on a design!

Espresso-Braised Pot Roast with Balsamic Vinegar

(from Not your Mother's Slow Cooker Recipes for Two)

Ingredients:
1.5 pounds boneless chuck roast, trimmed of fat
Salt and pepper to taste
1 large yellow onion, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/3 cup strong brewed coffee or espresso
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1.5 tablespoons cornstarch mixed with 1.5 tablespoons water
Directions:
1. Rub all sides of roast with salt and pepper. Place onion in the crock pot and toss with olive oil. Place meat on top of onions and add the coffee and vinegar. Cover and cook on low for 8-9 hours.
2. Transfer the roast to a cutting board, tent with foil and let rest for 10 minutes. Reserve onions for serving.
3. For the gravy: skim the fat from leftover liquid. Transfer liquid to saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Add the cornstarch mixture and whisk until gravy thickens.