Cilantro Tilapia

Here comes the first super healthy recipe! It was good but Mr. Lawyer suggested that it didn't need the ginger and he was completely right. I tasted mostly cilantro and sesame with hits of jalapeno. I don't think the ginger added a ton to the recipe. The fish was very moist and there was plenty of extra sauce to drizzle over it (and you know I'm a sauce girl).

Ginger and Cilantro Baked Tilapia

(Pinterest Find! Adapted from thekitchn.com)

Ingredients:
1 pound tilapia fillets
3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1 inch fresh ginger, grated, about 1 tablespoon
1 jalapeño pepper, roughly chopped
1/3 cup roughly chopped cilantro leaves
1/4 cup white wine
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
Scallions, chopped for garnish
Extra cilantro, to garnish
Directions:
1. Heat the oven to 400°F. Pat the fish dry and place in an 8x8 baking dish.
2. Put the garlic, grated ginger, chopped jalapeño, and cilantro in a small food processor with the white wine, soy sauce, and sesame oil. Whir until blended.
3. Pour the sauce over the fish, rubbing it in a little. Bake for 15 minutes, or until the fish flakes easily and is cooked through.
4. Garnish with the additional scallions and cilantro.

It's Got Some Kick!

Deliciously spicy is how I would describe this drink. The first time I had one was at a cousin's wedding and man oh man did that one have some kick. We recently had one down in Disney which reaffirmed the fact that we needed to make these! Plus I just happened to have some extra ginger beer in the fridge leftover from our Dark & Stormies. There are a bunch of different recipes for the Moscow Mule and the quality really depends on the spiciness of the ginger beer.

The Moscow Mule

Ingredients:

2 ounces vodka

1 ounce fresh lime juice

.5 ounces simple syrup

3 dashes of Angostura Bitters

3 ounces ginger beer

Directions:

1. Pour into your shaker all ingredients except the ginger beer

2. Add ice

3. Shake, shake, shake!

4. Strain into an ice filled glass

5. Top with ginger beer

6. Garnish with a lime wedge or mint sprigs

Ginger-Spice Cookies

Evidently all I need is a weekend at home with no social obligations and a hurricane to get my kitchen/blogging groove back! I wasn't a huge fan of these cookies. They are good but I don't think I like the chocolate-ginger combination.  I was drawn to this recipe because of the spices! I've never seen cookies with fresh ginger in them. Mr. Lawyer was intrigued as well and requested this recipe when I changed my mind and was leaning towards my brown sugar blueberry cookies. Good thing he likes them because he's getting them all! Give these bad boys a try if you're adventurous and think you might like the chocolate-ginger combination....I will be sticking to my traditional gingersnap cookies.

Chewy Chocolate Ginger-Spice Cookies

(adapted from Martha Stewart)

Ingredients:
1 stick unsalted butter (8 tablespoons), softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon fresh, grated ginger
1/2 cup molasses
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 Tablespoons cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons ground, dried ginger
2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
4 ounces dark chocolate, chopped
Sugar for rolling
Directions:
1. In the bowl of a mixer, beat the butter with the brown sugar until creamy and combined well. Add the fresh ginger, molasses, and vanilla, mix to combine. 

2. In a separate bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, cocoa, ground ginger, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, and salt. 

3.  Add the dry mixture to the butter mixture and pulse until just combined. 

4. Fold in chopped chocolate. Cover and chill the dough for at least 2 hours, or until very firm.
5. Preheat oven to 325*F and line baking sheets. Scoop dough into rounds and roll into a ball. Roll each ball in cinnamon sugar and place on baking sheets. Flatten cookies before baking for 15-18 minutes. 

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

Gingery Love

I can rationalize making these cookies because ginger is good for your tummy and aids in digestion right?! Therefore these cookies are completely medicinal and okay for the second day of the new year. I think I like them better than the Molasses Cookies I made back in November. The Molasses ones were moist and cake-like, the Gingersnaps are slightly chewy (but not hard like store bought ones) and have more gingery zip to them. 

Gingersnap Cookies

(adapted from allrecipes.com)

Ingredients:
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup shortening
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup dark molasses
1/3 cup cinnamon sugar
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Sift the flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt into a mixing bowl. Stir the mixture to blend evenly, and sift a second time into another bowl.
3. Place the shortening into a mixing bowl and beat until creamy. Gradually beat in the white sugar. Beat in the egg, and dark molasses. Sift 1/3 of the flour mixture into the shortening mixture; stir to thoroughly blend. Sift in the remaining flour mixture, and mix together until a soft dough forms.

4. Pinch off small amounts of dough and roll into 1 inch diameter balls between your hands. Roll each ball in cinnamon sugar, and place 2 inches apart on an ungreased baking sheet.
5. Bake in preheated oven until the tops are rounded and slightly cracked, about 10 minutes. Cool cookies on a wire rack. Store in an air tight container.

I love the crackly top!

Ginger-Chicken Soup

January's Bon Appetit has been really awesome (the broccolini was from this issue and there's a brussels sprouts recipe I want to try). I saw this recipe for Cleansing Ginger-Chicken soup and it looked delicious with the added benefits of everything ginger is suppose to do (anti-inflammtory, boost immunity, upset tummy fixer, etc) and being chicken soup. I'm having some residual sinus headaches from last weeks cold so I figured chilling in the kitchen all day huffing sauteing ginger and garlic while simultaneously making ginger-chicken soup was a good idea. Inflamed sinuses begone!

I compared a couple of recipes and couldn't decide which one I liked more. Some used homemade stock but I already had cooked chicken. I liked the idea of Bon Appetit's Cleansing soup with just broth and chicken but others got extra flavor from other veggies. Some strained the veggies and others didn't. I decided to piece together my favorite bits and pieces of each one. It came out pretty good! The broth was super yummy and gingery before I added the chicken but once the chicken was in it mostly just tasted like chicken soup which was a let down. To solve this problem I minced up some ginger and topped each bowl with a bit. This perked it back up and gave it a nice little zip. I ended up eating the strained veggies for lunch, they were nice and spicy!

Jenni's Bits and Pieces Ginger-Chicken Soup

(adapted from Bon Appetit, Real Simple, and various other recipes)

Ingredients:

1 carton reduced sodium chicken broth

1/3 cup ginger, roughly chopped

3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped

1 small red onion, thinly sliced

1 carrot, roughly chopped

10 whole black peppercorns

1 handful of sliced mushrooms

Desired amount of chicken

Directions:

1. Combine broth, ginger, garlic, onion, carrot and peppercorns. Simmer till your apartment smells amazing.

2. Strain out all the vegetables and eat them for lunch.

3. Add chicken, simmer till meat is warm and feed the boy dinner.

Using my new Spider (Skimmer/Strainer) to skim out my lunch!

Holy Sauce.

The most perfect day ever. I just spent 4+ hours rocking out to excellent music while making a mess in my kitchen and creating delicious things. Oh, and eating Peanut M&M's out of my apron pocket. Because that's what life is about.

A bazillion different things: olive bread proofing in the microwave, soup stock simmering, sauce going in The General, and a messy prep counter.

In researching Asian cuisine and wok use it seems that the most time consuming part of stir frying is making the sauce. When the actual act of stir frying is so simple and quick no one wants to come home, take out a bazillion ingredients, and whip up some sauce before starting up the wok. Today my mission was to bake bread and make soup. These activities require a lot of down time between proofings and stock boilings. Problem solved. Let's sauce it up and make a collection of stir fry sauces that can chill out in the freezer.

I wasn't joking about the M&Ms.

Take a peek at the sauce recipes!