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So, I actually picked this up from my brother a while back, and I like the flavor and all that. It's a good solid salad dressing that's easy to make, and the ingredients are pretty straightforward and easy to come by. At least they were back home at my parents' place. I'm sure you can find them anywhere though.
Ingredients:
soy sauce
rice vinegar
sugar
oil
Prep instructions:
Mix the ingredients together measuring until you get desired taste, then serve over salad.
Super easy, as salad dressings often are and ought to be. So some people like my brother prefer it a little sweeter, I like it a little on the more sour side. So according to how you like it you should adjust how much sugar and vinegar you put in. For oil, use normal cooking oil (i.e. vegetable oil, canola oil, peanut oil, etc...) because olive oil has a very distinct taste that doesn't mix well with the soy sauce. I recommend doing it in an old jar of some sort, so that if ever you want some you just shake it up.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Monday, July 28, 2008
Fish Fry
So, there was this crazy deal at Costco where they were selling catfish for like $3.99 a pound, and I was like, "That's crazy!" Of course the catch was that I have only a week to eat all of it. So as a start, I tried this fish fry recipe that I threw together in my head and to my amazement, it turned out really, really good. I think it might be the catfish, but the batter was good as well, so all in all, it was a success. Maybe I should get some potatoes and do fish and chips next time.
Ingredients:
Fish (preferably smaller pieces or fillets, I recommend a white fish such as haddock, cod, catfish, or even maybe Dover sole)
flour
garlic salt (I used the Costco one with parsley flakes in it)
lemon pepper
egg
Cooking instructions:
1.) In a large wok or deep sauce pan pour oil in until it is about 1/2 full and heat at a medium-high to high heat
2.) Mix together the flour, garlic salt, and lemon pepper in a large mixing bowl, I leave you to determine how much you want, but be liberal with the garlic salt and lemon pepper, that's my recommendation
3.) In another bowl beat the egg(s) (again the number of eggs is determined by how much fish you want to fry, I've found that 1 egg should probably do like 3 fillets pretty well)
4.) Take the fillet and dip it in the egg so it is completely covered, then cover with the batter (flour) mixture (I may try to mix everything together and use it as a solid batter, but I don't think that would work as well)
5.) Put the battered fillet into the hot oil and fry for about 5 minutes
Since the fish are in fillet or smaller form they ought to cook pretty fast, if the fish is completely submerged in the oil it ought to cook that much faster. Afterward I like to liberally drizzle lemon juice over the fish after letting it sit for a little bit. I was somewhat surprised at how crisp the fish came out and pleasantly surprised at how tasty the batter was. I would've used some malt vinegar, but I didn't have any, otherwise I'd have used some cocktail sauce, didn't have any of that either. I ended up using corn salsa (kinda weird, yeah), but it was good, all in all though, it was actually really good even with just the fish on its own with lemon juice.
Ingredients:
Fish (preferably smaller pieces or fillets, I recommend a white fish such as haddock, cod, catfish, or even maybe Dover sole)
flour
garlic salt (I used the Costco one with parsley flakes in it)
lemon pepper
egg
Cooking instructions:
1.) In a large wok or deep sauce pan pour oil in until it is about 1/2 full and heat at a medium-high to high heat
2.) Mix together the flour, garlic salt, and lemon pepper in a large mixing bowl, I leave you to determine how much you want, but be liberal with the garlic salt and lemon pepper, that's my recommendation
3.) In another bowl beat the egg(s) (again the number of eggs is determined by how much fish you want to fry, I've found that 1 egg should probably do like 3 fillets pretty well)
4.) Take the fillet and dip it in the egg so it is completely covered, then cover with the batter (flour) mixture (I may try to mix everything together and use it as a solid batter, but I don't think that would work as well)
5.) Put the battered fillet into the hot oil and fry for about 5 minutes
Since the fish are in fillet or smaller form they ought to cook pretty fast, if the fish is completely submerged in the oil it ought to cook that much faster. Afterward I like to liberally drizzle lemon juice over the fish after letting it sit for a little bit. I was somewhat surprised at how crisp the fish came out and pleasantly surprised at how tasty the batter was. I would've used some malt vinegar, but I didn't have any, otherwise I'd have used some cocktail sauce, didn't have any of that either. I ended up using corn salsa (kinda weird, yeah), but it was good, all in all though, it was actually really good even with just the fish on its own with lemon juice.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Stuffed Round Roast Au Jus
There's nothing in terms of spectacular history behind this, really, I mean, I just saw a pack of round roast at Costco and thought, "Hey, this is a pretty good deal for all the beef." I ended up buying it, but then I wasn't really sure what I should do with it, so I ended up coming up with this because I was hankering for something savory. Originally, I was thinking about slicing into smaller chunks, but it doesn't end up tasting as juicy and tender when you do that. This is probably like one of the most informal of all recipes considering I had no real idea what I was doing.
Ingredients:
1 round roast
small red potatoes
onion
mushrooms
celery
carrots
1 can beef stock
garlic salt
garlic
pepper
butter
rosemary
Cooking Instructions
1.) Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F
2.) Slice the roast open down the middle and season with a little rosemary and pepper
3.) Mince the garlic, slice celery, carrots, mushroom, and onion and mix together in a bowl, apply garlic salt liberally
4.) Cut the potatoes into bite size pieces
5.) Put the roast in a deep roasting tray and stuff the slice with the veggie mix, fill the rest of the tray with the remaining veggies and the potatoes
6.) Sprinkle garlic salt and rosemary over the top
7.) Cut up some butter into chunks and place it throughout the tray
8.) Pour the beef stock over everything into the roasting tray
9.) Bake for 35-40 minutes or until meat is cooked to desired readiness
This is the reason I love beef, it's ok if it's not cooked all the way. Anyways, I've also done a pseudo steam roast where I covered the tray with foil while baking it and cut two slits into it. The long slit cut into the roast should help it cook through more thoroughly, and the butter and stock add some flavor in addition to the inherent beef flavor. Generally the baking should cook all of the veggies, but if you want to be safe, you can blanche them (or as I do it put them in a pot of water over a stove and pull them out as the water begins to boil, maybe that is blanching, I don't remember) prior to mixing them with the garlic salt. I always liked it, it's hearty and the sauce is good. Can't go wrong with beef stock and butter, seriously, you can't.
Ingredients:
1 round roast
small red potatoes
onion
mushrooms
celery
carrots
1 can beef stock
garlic salt
garlic
pepper
butter
rosemary
Cooking Instructions
1.) Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F
2.) Slice the roast open down the middle and season with a little rosemary and pepper
3.) Mince the garlic, slice celery, carrots, mushroom, and onion and mix together in a bowl, apply garlic salt liberally
4.) Cut the potatoes into bite size pieces
5.) Put the roast in a deep roasting tray and stuff the slice with the veggie mix, fill the rest of the tray with the remaining veggies and the potatoes
6.) Sprinkle garlic salt and rosemary over the top
7.) Cut up some butter into chunks and place it throughout the tray
8.) Pour the beef stock over everything into the roasting tray
9.) Bake for 35-40 minutes or until meat is cooked to desired readiness
This is the reason I love beef, it's ok if it's not cooked all the way. Anyways, I've also done a pseudo steam roast where I covered the tray with foil while baking it and cut two slits into it. The long slit cut into the roast should help it cook through more thoroughly, and the butter and stock add some flavor in addition to the inherent beef flavor. Generally the baking should cook all of the veggies, but if you want to be safe, you can blanche them (or as I do it put them in a pot of water over a stove and pull them out as the water begins to boil, maybe that is blanching, I don't remember) prior to mixing them with the garlic salt. I always liked it, it's hearty and the sauce is good. Can't go wrong with beef stock and butter, seriously, you can't.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Grilled Steak with a Red Wine Mushroom Sauce
I had to do a lot of makeshift changes with this, so I haven't "technically" tried this recipe yet. However, I basically made this a couple of times for myself and my roommate, and it's turned out fairly well. Usually, it's because I find some crazy beef deal at Safeway or something, yay for beef. As a note, the steak that you want to use should be of a flatter variety, I think I used a flank steak, but sirloin should work well as well, tri-tip I think is doable but probably a little harder to pull off. Anyways, you try out your own iterations and let me know how it turns out.
Ingredients:
steak (you pick which one)
Worchester sauce
lemon juice
Montreal steak seasoning
red wine (something fruity, of course I didn't have any so I used red wine vinegar, red cooking wine works as well)
sugar
butter
Italian seasoning
garlic salt
mushrooms
black pepper
olive oil
Cooking Instructions:
1.) In a bowl soak the steaks in Worchester sauce and lemon juice, coat with Montreal seasoning
2.) When ready, heat a pan to a medium/medium-high heat with olive oil
3.) Grill the steak on the pan, add Montreal seasoning if necessary
4.) When the steak has been cooked to order, remove onto a plate. I understand that sometimes, especially on a pan grilling, it's hard to tell if a steak is done enough, I like to apply some of the methods I use to cook fish, which is watch the sides of the meat, flip when the sides seem like their almost cooked, and then after a while, poke a hole in it and see if it bleeds, if it does leave it on for another 5 minutes. I think I cooked mine for about 15 minutes or so, of course the thickness of the steak determines the time too.
5.) Wash mushrooms and allow to soak in water. I've heard that soaking the mushrooms make them better to saute
6.) In a sauce pan, on a medium high heat, saute the mushrooms, add in butter and season with Italian seasoning and garlic salt
7.) When the mushrooms are soft add in wine (again I used red wine vinegar), and mix with sugar. When I made it the other night, I added some flour before the wine to make the mixture a little thicker. Make sure you don't add too much. Makes the butter clumpy.
8.) When the sauce has reduced to desired state, serve over steak
So, depending on the wine you use, it'll be differing amounts of sugar if any that need to be added. Since I used a wine vinegar, I added a fairly large amount of sugar as it's much more sour. The mushrooms should come out soft with a sweet and tangy touch to it, and the steaks should be slightly peppery, but mix well with the sauce. Hope this works for you! If you want the meat to be more tender, marinate in the lemon juice and Worchester sauce the night before.
Ingredients:
steak (you pick which one)
Worchester sauce
lemon juice
Montreal steak seasoning
red wine (something fruity, of course I didn't have any so I used red wine vinegar, red cooking wine works as well)
sugar
butter
Italian seasoning
garlic salt
mushrooms
black pepper
olive oil
Cooking Instructions:
1.) In a bowl soak the steaks in Worchester sauce and lemon juice, coat with Montreal seasoning
2.) When ready, heat a pan to a medium/medium-high heat with olive oil
3.) Grill the steak on the pan, add Montreal seasoning if necessary
4.) When the steak has been cooked to order, remove onto a plate. I understand that sometimes, especially on a pan grilling, it's hard to tell if a steak is done enough, I like to apply some of the methods I use to cook fish, which is watch the sides of the meat, flip when the sides seem like their almost cooked, and then after a while, poke a hole in it and see if it bleeds, if it does leave it on for another 5 minutes. I think I cooked mine for about 15 minutes or so, of course the thickness of the steak determines the time too.
5.) Wash mushrooms and allow to soak in water. I've heard that soaking the mushrooms make them better to saute
6.) In a sauce pan, on a medium high heat, saute the mushrooms, add in butter and season with Italian seasoning and garlic salt
7.) When the mushrooms are soft add in wine (again I used red wine vinegar), and mix with sugar. When I made it the other night, I added some flour before the wine to make the mixture a little thicker. Make sure you don't add too much. Makes the butter clumpy.
8.) When the sauce has reduced to desired state, serve over steak
So, depending on the wine you use, it'll be differing amounts of sugar if any that need to be added. Since I used a wine vinegar, I added a fairly large amount of sugar as it's much more sour. The mushrooms should come out soft with a sweet and tangy touch to it, and the steaks should be slightly peppery, but mix well with the sauce. Hope this works for you! If you want the meat to be more tender, marinate in the lemon juice and Worchester sauce the night before.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Rigatoni with Chorizo Meat Sauce
So I've been asked to post pictures as well, and well, I'm getting around to it, so sorry, no pics for this one either. This is something of a recipe that I've sort of become known for, of course, it's taken its course of iterations and variations, but the essence has been the same. This specifically, I can tie to my development of an appreciation for spicier foods. It has a very nice kick and tangy flavor. Apparently it's a big enough hit that my mom always asks me to make it whenever I'm home (well, now it's the salmon). Apparently a lot of people like it, I know I do.
Ingredients:
Chorizo sausage
1 can crushed tomatoes (aka tomato puree)
1 onion
garlic
chili powder (or diced chili pepper)
white cooking wine
1 lb rigatoni pasta
black pepper
salt
olive oil
spicy Italian sausage (optional)
Cooking Instructions:
1.) Bring a pot of water to boil for the pasta, add pasta when water reaches a rolling boil (I add salt to the water, it makes the pasta cook faster because salt water needs to be hotter to boil)
2.) Slice the onions into slivers and mince the garlic, then on a pan, saute the garlic and onions in olive oil
3.) Cook the chorizo, normally it should come in a tube, and you just squeeze it out after cutting off one of the ends. Add the chorizo to the garlic and onions, additionally, you want to cook the Italian sausage as a meatball form here as well, if you have it.
4.) In a pot or saucepan, heat the crushed tomatoes on a medium heat.
5.) Season the tomatoes with chili powder (or add the pepper), black pepper, salt, and Italian seasoning, also add in the white wine (I think officially it's 1/2 cup, but I'm not positive)
6.) When the meat has been cooked, add the contents of that pan into the sauce, mix well.
7.) Serve over pasta when finished
And there you have it. I originally made it the first time with chorizo, but that's a little hard to find sometimes, so I used spicy Italian sausage the second time, afterwards, when I found both of them, I found that the chorizo creates the sauce and added with the wine and pepper gives it the kick, however, for people who like a little more substance in their pastas, the meatball-shaped sausage indeed makes it more substantial. I've yet to experience immense success using Anaheim chili peppers, so I think I'm picking the wrong ones, however, chili powder, for all extesnive purposes works quite well. Of course, you might want to take it easy on that stuff if you're cooking for people who don't really appreciate spicy foods as the sausage (if you have it) and the chorizo will already be adding a bit of its own kick to it. As a side note, the chorizo is very oily, so try not to get a lot of it on you, it's really hard to get out, trust me, I know.
Ingredients:
Chorizo sausage
1 can crushed tomatoes (aka tomato puree)
1 onion
garlic
chili powder (or diced chili pepper)
white cooking wine
1 lb rigatoni pasta
black pepper
salt
olive oil
spicy Italian sausage (optional)
Cooking Instructions:
1.) Bring a pot of water to boil for the pasta, add pasta when water reaches a rolling boil (I add salt to the water, it makes the pasta cook faster because salt water needs to be hotter to boil)
2.) Slice the onions into slivers and mince the garlic, then on a pan, saute the garlic and onions in olive oil
3.) Cook the chorizo, normally it should come in a tube, and you just squeeze it out after cutting off one of the ends. Add the chorizo to the garlic and onions, additionally, you want to cook the Italian sausage as a meatball form here as well, if you have it.
4.) In a pot or saucepan, heat the crushed tomatoes on a medium heat.
5.) Season the tomatoes with chili powder (or add the pepper), black pepper, salt, and Italian seasoning, also add in the white wine (I think officially it's 1/2 cup, but I'm not positive)
6.) When the meat has been cooked, add the contents of that pan into the sauce, mix well.
7.) Serve over pasta when finished
And there you have it. I originally made it the first time with chorizo, but that's a little hard to find sometimes, so I used spicy Italian sausage the second time, afterwards, when I found both of them, I found that the chorizo creates the sauce and added with the wine and pepper gives it the kick, however, for people who like a little more substance in their pastas, the meatball-shaped sausage indeed makes it more substantial. I've yet to experience immense success using Anaheim chili peppers, so I think I'm picking the wrong ones, however, chili powder, for all extesnive purposes works quite well. Of course, you might want to take it easy on that stuff if you're cooking for people who don't really appreciate spicy foods as the sausage (if you have it) and the chorizo will already be adding a bit of its own kick to it. As a side note, the chorizo is very oily, so try not to get a lot of it on you, it's really hard to get out, trust me, I know.
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