Once again!  HORRIBLE picture!  I apologize internet food blogging posh world.

Nonetheless!   This is a quick and easy dinner option.   I personally love the taste of pork.  It has it’s own complex flavors that I enjoy more than chicken but is definitely not as intense as beef.  I’ve made versions of this recipe a few times and no matter what, it has always tasted amazing.  You can add more sugar to the sauce to make it a little more sweet, add red wine, slice up some crunchy Asian/Korean pears or a crisp apple in with the onions.  I love this recipe and so does Sean.  Whenever we are feeling like an Americanski-riceless-not-so-Asian dinner, grilled pork with a balsamic sauce is the awesome.

Grilled Pork with an Onion Balsamic Reduction Sauce
Serves 4

4 Pork Chops
1 medium sweet onion, sliced
1/4th cup of balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon of sherry
1 tablespoon of brown sugar
1 tablespoon of honey
salt and pepper

Heat up a hot griddle/grill or skillet on medium.  While the grill is getting hot, lightly coat the pork chops with olive oil and salt and pepper.  Throw those chops on the grill for about 5 or 6 minutes on each side.  These chops are a medium thickness.

In a small pan, add a little olive oil to coat the bottom and add the sliced onions. Lower the intensity of the fore to low.  Once they start to get soft and brown, add the balsamic, sugar, honey, and sherry.   I let it cook/reduce for about 8 minutes.

Plop the grilled pork on a plate and spoon the onion and balsamic ontop.  Eat!

Sweet Chili Glazed Salmon
Adapted from Bon Appetit’s much longer titled recipe, which you can find here.
Serves 2

1/4 cup Asian Sweet Chili Sauce, such as mae ploy
2 tablespoons soy sauce, divided
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar, divided
1 tablespoon mirin
2  8-oz center cut salmon filets with skin
1 tsp grapeseed oil, or any plain vegetable oil
1 tsp sesame oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
3-4  bunches bloomsdale spinach leaves, substitute with 2 handfuls of baby spinach
1 cup pea sprouts

Line a baking sheet with nonstick aluminum foil, or lightly oiled regular foil.  Place salmon fillets skin side down on the prepared sheet pan and season with salt and pepper.  In a small bowl, stir together the sweet chili sauce, 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar and the mirin.  Spoon marinade over the salmon and let stand at room temperature for 20 minutes.

Preheat broiler.  Spoon any marinade remaining on the baking sheet over the salmon fillets.  Broil salmon without turning until browned at corners and the fish is almost opaque in the center, about 8 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat the grapeseed and sesame oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat.  Toss in the garlic and stir fry for 30 seconds until aromatic.  Add spinach leaves and cook, stirring regularly for 2 minutes.  Add the pea sprouts and stir til just wilted, about 1 minute.  Add the remaining soy sauce and rice wine vinegar and fresh black pepper, then turn off heat and set aside.

Voila!

I rounded out our meal with a sort of deconstructed salad.  The greens are a beautiful head of red-tipped romaine, tossed with a light asian-flavored dressing and sesame seeds along with some avocado slices and some simple sunomono cucumbers.  It was the perfect crisp and bright companion to the buttery-textured, sweet and salty salmon.  Enjoy!

If you’ve never heard of Columbia Restaurant, it means you haven’t spent much time in Florida.  It’s a chain of about a dozen restaurants that to my knowledge is restricted to the Sunshine State.  To be perfectly honest, it’s not a very spectacular restaurant overall.  It definitely caters to the tourists and the snow birds, and as a college student, I found it severely overpriced.

So why is it worth mentioning?  Because they have a spectacular salad on their menu, called the 1905 salad, named for the year their flagship restaurant opened in Ybor City, a district in Tampa.  The 1905 salad is Columbia’s big ta-dah, because all the servers know the recipe by heart and whip it up table-side.  This should clue you in to how simple and fast you can prepare this for a weeknight dinner.  The classic is with ham, which you can swap out for turkey or shrimp.  I like the combo of ham and turkey, but rock it out to your tastes.  Oh and did I mention it was really delicious?

Columbia Restaurant’s 1905 Salad
Makes 2 giant entree portions, or 4 appetizer/side dish portions

For the Salad:
1 small head of iceberg lettuce, chopped
2 vine ripe tomatoes, diced
1/4 lb swiss cheese, sliced extra thick and julienned
1/4 lb deli ham, sliced extra thick and julienned
1/4 lb deli turkey, sliced extra thick and julienned
1/4 cup green spanish olives, sliced
2 tbsp fresh grated romano or parmesan cheese

For the Dressing:
1/8 cup white wine vinegar
1/8 cup lemon juice
3 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 tsp Worchestershire sauce
1 tsp dried oregano
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil, preferably Spanish

In a large bowl, whisk together all the dressing ingredients except the olive oil, along with salt and a fair bit of fresh ground black pepper.  Pour in the olive oil in a slow stream, whisking vigorously until fully incorporated.  (Alternatively, you can also drop all the ingredients into the blender, or mix them quickly with an immersion blender as I did here.  The bowl-whisked dressing is traditional.)

You know the drill.  Drop all of the salad ingredients into the large bowl, coating everything in the dressing.  Portion out into serving bowls, and top with more ground pepper and romano cheese as desired.

Pre-dressing…

And yum…

This really makes for a filling, yet light dinner.  The flavors are very balanced and the dressing is super yum.  And I seriously cannot stress enough how quickly you can whip this up on a weeknight.  Enjoy everybody!  Oh, and thanks to that magazine that published this recipe which I found in that snobby coffee shop in Sarasota that I never patronized again.

Oh lordy, this was delicious. But let’s start at the beginning, shall we?

Melissa was kind enough to bring me a half loaf of Cream Pan bread from a bakery in Marukai, a Japanese supermarket in Torrance. This bread was magic. Giant, inch thick slices of perfectly square, sweet and slightly eggy white bread. She had told me it makes an amazing French toast, but since I rarely get the chance to cook breakfast except for on the weekends and this being a Monday and all, I opted for a monte cristo sandwich. Not familiar? Perhaps you’ve seen it on the crusty, plastic pages of the Bennigan’s menu, where they offer it up as a deep-fried, thick-battered, powdered-sugar encrusted pile on a plate. This takes the same idea but makes it much, much more healthful, and, I personally say, more delicious.

Monte Cristo Sandwich
Makes 2 tasty sandwiches

4 slices challah or Japanese white bread, medium thickness (1/2″ – 3/4″ is ideal)
2 tbsp light mayonaise
4 tsp dijon mustard
4 slices swiss cheese
1/4 lb thin sliced deli ham
1/3 lb thin sliced turkey
3 eggs
1/3 cup milk
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp raspberry jam or preserves to serve with the sandwiches

Start by building your sammies. Spread a thin layer of mayonaise on all 4 slices. This is important to create a moisture barrier between the eggy outside of the sandwich and the delicious filling. Top the mayo with a shmear of dijon. Next add the cheese. It’s important to have this close to the outside so that it can melt like a grilled cheese. Next, layer on the turkey and the ham. Toss a pinch of salt and a grind of black pepper and then fold into a sandwich. If you’re using a thinner slice of bread, you can go for a more classic double-decker club style sandwich with turkey on one half and ham on the other.

At this point you have the option to wrap the sandwich tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 or so minutes, but this is optional. It just helps the sandwich hold together better in the pan, especially if you’re going double-decker style. I was hungry and my bread slices were ginormous, so this didn’t happen.

Place a large skillet, or two medium skillets over medium-low heat and melt the butter in them. While its heating up, you’ve got time to whip up the egg bath. Crack the eggs into a wide low bowl and whisk it together with the milk until its very well incorporated. One at a time, place the sandwiches into the bowl, soaking both sides in the eggwash for atleast 10 seconds. Wipe off the excess and into the pan it goes!

The idea is to cook these friends low and slow, which allows the eggs to cook and the cheese to melt without the sandwich getting too dark on the outside. You’ll want to see some bubbles like this around the sandwich, otherwise the pan’s not hot enough. You might need to flip it over a few times to ensure even browning.  Oh and while you’re at it, check out my sweet new range…

When both sides are golden brown and the cheese has melted, pull your friend out of the pan, and cut into sexy triangles! If you feel so inclined, you can dust the top with powdered sugar, but I think the jam on the side offers the perfect amount of sweetness to compliment the salty cheese/lunchmeats, the spicy bite of the mustard and pepper, and tender eggy bread. Its a seriously well balanced bite, and makes for a delightful weeknight dinner. Enjoy!

One of the best looking pieces of produce in our first CSA box was a gorgeous head of bok choy. Usually bok choy ends up playing second fiddle in my cooking, but I knew I really wanted to showcase this great ingredient. I came up with an easy stir fry using items I had on hand, including frozen shrimp and some tasty mushrooms. I was really impressed with the simplicity of the dish. In fact, I would barely change a thing next time around, and I can’t wait to make it again.

Shrimp and Bok Choy Stir Fry
Makes 2-3 entree portions

3/4 lb shrimp (25 count), deveined and shells removed
2 tbsp dry sherry or sake
1 tbsp plus 2 tsp corn starch
1 tsp plus 1 tbsp soy sauce
1 large head of bok choy
6 oz sliced white or shitake mushrooms, sliced
1 tbsp ginger, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup chicken stock
2 tbsp mirin
1/2 tsp sugar
2 tbsp vegetable oil

In a medium bowl, whisk together the sherry, 1 tbsp cornstarch and 1 tsp soy sauce. Add the shrimp and toss to coat evenly. Set aside. In another small bowl, combine the chicken broth, mirin, sugar, the additional 1 tbsp of soy sauce and 2 tsp cornstarch and set aside.

The most important step of stir-frying is the prep work. Since the cooking happens so quickly, everything must be ready to hit the pan before you begin. Wash and prep your bok choy. I like to slice the thick white stems on the bias, and then roll up and do a large, rough chiffonade of the green leaves. Be sure to keep these separate, as they’ll hit the pan at a different time.

When everything is ready, heat your wok over the highest heat your stove top can get. When the pan is screaming hot, add 1 tbsp of the vegetable oil. Start by adding the aromatics, in this case the ginger and the garlic. Stir for only 15 seconds, as the garlic can burn quickly, then add the shrimp. Keep the shrimp moving around the pan, and when they’re still slightly translucent, about 1-2 minutes, pull them out of the pan and set aside. They’re not fully cooked through, but that’s what you’re looking for, just like in the pic below.

Allow your pan to come back to heat, then add the remaining tbsp of vegetable oil. Toss in the white bok choy stems and the mushrooms. Stir fry for about 3 minutes until the edges of the bok choy become translucent and the mushrooms soften, then add the green leaves of the bok choy and cook an additional 2 minutes.

When the greens have slightly wilted, return the shrimp to the pan. Add the broth mixture. Continue to move the ingredients around the pan until the shrimp is fully cooked and the sauce begins to thicken slightly, about 2 minutes.

Serve alongside steamed white rice and dig in!! Enjoy, my fellow foodies!

So this isn’t a recipe per say. Just a list of ingredients you may or may not want to stack together at some point in your life. What I used, all from Trader Joe’s:

- 1/2 demi baguette
- 1 to 2 tablespoons olive tapenade spread
- 1 to 2 slices prosciutto
- small handful of micro greens

Spread the tapenade on the bread, throw the other stuff on, eat!

Also, the TJ’s micro greens have become indispensable in my kitchen. They’re great on sammiches of all kinds, adding to salads, or just eating them dressed with a light vinaigrette.

Double Also! In the making of this sammich, I discovered (or remembered from something I read on the internets) a Very Useful Thing. How to eat a baguette that’s up to 4 days old without breaking your teeth. No more than 4 days though. Or teeth will break. You will lose any kind of baguette crusty-ness with this method, but that doesn’t really bother me. If it bothers you, buy fresh baguette!

So, lightly dampen a paper towel. Wring it out if you need to so it’s not dripping wet. Wrap it snugly around the bit o’ baguette you want to eat. Microwave for 15 seconds. You can go up to 20 seconds, but no more. Cut off any parts that are still hard, cause man, they’re gone.

Voila! Warm, soft, edible baguette.

For me, being on serious overtime means surviving on catering and never, ever, ever getting to cook. But never fear, for the time after a movie is done (called “unemployment”, or as I prefer “extended vacation”) means lots of cooking and experimenting with new recipes! Now, so far some have been, uh, lackluster. I’m looking at you, rock hard homemade rice crackers. But others have been lovely. Like these nice Prosciutto, Dijon, and Gruyere Puffs:

Om nom nom.

Now, I gleefully stole this recipe from the lovely blog Joy the Baker. I strayed from her recipe in a few minor ways, but the changes are so slight that I’ll just put a little link here to her instead. Ze Puffs! Credit where credit is due! These mofos are soft, flavorful, and so very easy to make. Seriously. If you’ve ever used Play-doh or assembled a sandwich, you’re good to go.

My changes are as follows: I am not terribly fond of the double roll style of pastry that she used, so I just did a single roll. The double roll stuff tends to fall apart as I eat it, so I stuck with a more compact formation. The picture makes the finished rolls look huge, but they’re really quite small, less than palm sized. As a result, I went with less of the filling than the original recipe called for, fearing that the flavor would be too intense. And boy am I glad I did. I went about half on the Prosciutto and Gruyere, and used a little less than a tablespoon of Dijon. The dijon can be a little overwhelming, so use less if you’re not crazy about it.

Oh man are these good! I forsee an entire summer of rolled puff pasty awesomes and delights! Spinach and mushroom! Olive tapenade! Who knows what else!

On tap for this summer’s food blogging assuming I get off my lazy ass and do it:

- Cookbook reviews, including “The Japanese Kitchen”!
- Restaurant reviews, like Shinsengumi Ramen and La Provence!
- Tips, tricks, and product reviews, none of which come to mind at the moment!
- My favorite Southern dishes, aka, a thinly veiled excuse to eat tasty things when I go home this summer!
- Recipes, assuming I can get the rice crackers to come out right this time!

I’ll see you mofos later.

Today’s was a simple one. Beef with broccoli and onions in a sweet soy garlic sauce.

Ingredients:
1.25 pounds of beef (anywhere between 1 to 1.5 pounds should be good)
2 crowns of broccoli cut up
1 large onion roughly choppeded
3 tablespoons of garlic
1/2 cup of soy sauce
3 tablespoons of mirin, cooking sake, or 1 tablespoon of rice vinegar/white vinegar
3 tablespoons of brown sugar
3-4 tablespoons of cornstarch
sesame seed oil

This will make about 3-4 adult servings. (:

Cut the beef thinly. You can tenderize if you like! I used two top sirloin steaks.

Add the sesame seed oil to the pan and throw in the garlic. When the garlic starts to brown…

HUZZAH! The meat magically teleports into the pan!

So while the meat cooks, I set up the sauce!
1/2 cup of soysauce
3 tablespoons of mirin
3 tablespoons of sugar
can also add a little honey to add a slightly different sweet flavor
MIX!

When most of the meat has cooked/browned, who do we call?

Gastronomical busters!…
Onions?

And also the broccoli!
Does anyone else say “brock-cole-eye”? I sure do!

Now put the lid over it and let the steam cook the veggies for around 5 minutes.
I like to leave the broccoli and the onions on top of the beef so that the beef can finish cooking and the steam will cook the veggies without burning them or over cooking them. I quite dislike limp over cooked broccoli. It has such a weird bitter aftertaste. Then again, I really enjoy raw veggies most of all.. but that’s another story!

So after 5 minutes or so, the broccoli should look much greener and meaner! The richer color is how I like it, and still crisp. (: If you like your broccoli more cooked, leave it for another 3 minutes or so to steam!

Now pour the soy sauce mixture into the pot!

Mixmixmix! Stir and let the pan fry!

Get 3 or 4 tablespoons of cornstarch and add a little water (didn’t measure, just enough to cover the cornstarch), and mix thoroughly! It should have a nice white milky sheen. Some recipes say to just throw the cornstarch into the pan, on top of what you already have in there. I don’t like this method cuz the cornstarch can lump up. And lumps are pretty gross. Especially lady lumps. and humps. my humps. -.-

If you want a super sticky sauce to stick to the meat and veggies, throw in another tablespoon.

Scoot some the stir fry aside so the sauce is exposed.
Pour the cornstarch in there.
Turn the heat to low.
Mixmixmix!

FINISHED!

eat eat eat

It’s always a question that plagues the soul, every night!
I’m a big stickler for having all your meats and veggies. Yum!
Menu: Broiled Flank Steak and Mixed Veggie Stirfry

Ingredients for the Flank Steak:

2.5 half pounds of Flank Steak
1/4th cup of Soy Sauce
3 tablespoons of Olive Oil
2 tablespoons of Chopped Garlic
1 tablespoon of Sriracha Sauce
2 sprigs of cut long Green Onion
Salt & Pepper to taste

Ingredients for Veggie Stirfry:

.5 large Sweet Onion
.5 Red Pepper
handful of Mushrooms
1 crisp Apple
1 Lime
2 tablespoons of Garlic
3 tablespoons of Sesame Seed Oil
1 tablespoons of Mirin
2 tablespoons of Soysauce
1 teaspoon of suger

Steak:

Mix 1/4th cup of soy sauce, 3 tablespoons of olive oil, 2 tablespoons of Chopped Garlic, 1 tablespoon of Sriracha Sauce, and 2 sprigs of cut long Green Onion stir em together.

If you want your steak to be a little sweeter, add a tablespoon of sugar or honey. The sweetness mixes nicely with the Sriracha.

Grab that steak and lay it flat.
Cut off any excess fattage that my be on there.
Cover with clear plastic wrap.
Pound the crap out of the steak and tenderize that summovabitch.

Put the steak in the marinade and let it sit at room temperature for at least an hour.

If you want to let it sit over night (high recommended for tasty yumness), put into a plastic ziplog bag and let it sit in the fridge.

Preheat the oven and set it to BROIL! for at least 10 minutes.

Things to know about broiling… I didn’t know!
It cooks from one side, say, the top down. So it will cook half, at a very high temperature. The nice thing about it is that it will glaze/crisp the meat super nicely.
It’s good for thinner cuts of steak, like flank, rather than thick.
If your broiler is at the top of your oven, you’re going to want to move the grill so that it’s about 6 inches away from the top of the oven/heat.

Put the steak in an oven safe glass cooking thingie so it’s laid out flat.

Cook for 5 or 6 minutes on the first side OR until the thickest part of the steak is at 125 degrees F.

Once the time or the temperature has been reached, then flip it over and cook for about 4 or 5 minutes until the steak is nicely browned.

Take it out of the broiler!

Don’t leave it in the oven/broiler, or else it will become completely well done (like I did tonight). Taking it out of the oven/broiler will let it be a nice medium well with a little pink in there.

Set aside and let it sit for about 5 minutes so that the juices reset and don’t just pour out when you try to cut it.

Cut and eat!

Look at that soft subtle pink color… Mrrroowww.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper to your yummilicous tastes!

So while the broiler is heating up, chop your veggies!

Chop mushrooms, onions, and the bell peppers and put into a big boil.
Add 2 tablespoons of sesame oil and pepper and mix around.

In another bowl, slice the apples, unskin, and squeeze the lime in there.
The lime will help keep the apple from oxidizing and turning brown.

Let the pan heat up for 2 minutes or so at a medium heat.
Put in another tablespoon of sesame seed oil and throw in the two tablespoons of chopped garlic.

Throw in the veggie mixture first and cook for 5 minutes.
(this is where you can flip your steak)
Throw in the apple and lime juice.
Add the soysauce, sugar, and mirin. Just poor that thing in there.
Cook for another 4 minutes.
Turn off the heat.
(now your steak should be ready to pull out of the oven!)