Simple Steak and Vegetables: Better Than a Restaurant

My husband, very recently, had a steak at a very very posh restaurant. When I asked him about it, how marvelous it was, how spectacular, he looked at me and shook his head. "Too much salt, on EVERYTHING. I could barely finish my steak." He was extremely disappointed (as was I because I generally live vicariously through my husband since he eats out far more than I do) and proclaimed "Everything tastes better at home."

Hmph. That just means more work for ME of course. And sometimes, I just don't WANT to cook. Yes, it's true. I also don't like cooking on some days. But if it is easy? Why not? This meal, I do some prep work in the kitchen, but I make husband do the rest of the work on the grill. He doesn't complain as grilling, in the caveman sense, is still "a man's job."

Some tips

I love a good rib-eye. I've said this before - but it just has great marbling, cooks up great, and tastes delicious with a simple olive oil rub and salt and pepper on both sides.

Take your meat out of the refrigerator a good 30 minutes before you intend to grill it. Too cold meat never grills well - but one that has been gently brought out - will cook much better.

How to get your kids to eat the vegetables? As they said in one episode of Top Chef -DIPPING SAUCE. I made a balsamic reduction, similar to the Salmon Agrodolce one and offered it as a topping to the steak and as a dipping sauce for the kids. They were dipping the grilled vegetables in there like there was no tomorrow. One of these days I'll post a video of my kids eating - generally it's a bit embarassing as they sometimes can eat like maniacs.

Preparation
For the vegetables, I simply cut them into grill-able pieces (meaning sort of chunkier so that husband wasn't constantly dropping them through the grill) and tossed them with olive oil and salt and pepper. I used a selection of zucchini, asparagus and bell peppers. For the bell peppers, red, yellow, and orange taste better grilled than the green. (it's easier for the kids to eat as well for they are sweet.) I also think that eggplant would be nice, red onions, or mushrooms. All your vegetables just need a simple drizzle and toss with olive oil and seasoning of salt and pepper.

I had husband cook the vegetables first, so as to get the kids started on that. The vegetables cook quickly so there shouldn't be idle chit chat while vegetables are cooking. Then he cooked the steak and we came in and had a delicious meal.

The menu:

Rib-eye steak with balsamic reduction sauce
Grilled Vegetables
Steamed corn
cherry tomatoes

The only pan you need is for the balsamic reduction -what more could you ask for!

Sausages,Peppers, and Onions - In the Name of Versatility

Cooking becomes more fun and easier when you are able to "whip up" a dish quickly, without having to scramble for ingredient or look at a recipe while cooking. But getting to that place, where you are able to get it together quickly and "effortlessly" (it never is effortless is it?) is really a function of how much practice one has. The more you practice a dish, the better you get at it, the more you know it, the more you feel free to sort of "wing it" (instead of those oh-so-precise measurements we do when getting to know a recipe).

So sometimes, the way to get practice is to have a dish that can move in a few different directions. If a dish is versatile, then you can serve it week after week and it will be different each time - but it gets EASIER for you as the cook each time. Family benefits because they aren't bored of the dish, and cook benefits because it becomes an easy thing to make, simply because it's been practiced.

So this dish - the Sausage with Peppers and Onions - is great, because it can be served in a sandwich (like my picture), served over pasta, or served as a main with some sort of other starch and salad on the side.

I did mine this time as a sandwich with a lightly dressed arugula salad on the side. It was a hit with kids and husband, and at one point, older daughter commented that she "needed some pasta to wipe up the sauce."

The recipe calls for red bell peppers, but I only had yellow lying around the house. I also used turkey sausage and I added some anaheim chilis for a bit of heat to the dish, but didn't use the crushed red pepper flakes. The recipe itself is a great base that allows you to play around with it. The additional benefit is that you can eat it one way for dinner, and any leftovers can be turned into its other variation.

Serving suggestions:
Over creamy polenta
Over pasta
Stuffed in a roll

VERSATILITY is a great thing!

Sausage, Peppers, and Onions (adapted from a recipe by Giada De Laurentiis)

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 pound sweet Italian turkey sausage
2 red or yellow bell peppers, sliced 
1 Anaheim chili (or a jalapeno if you like it a bit spicier)
2 yellow onions, sliced
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
6 garlic cloves, chopped
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 cup wine (white, red, whatever you have around that needs to be used up)
1 (15-ounce) can diced tomatoes
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes, optional
4 to 6 fresh Italian sandwich rolls, optional 
 
Heat the oil in a heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add the sausages and cook until brown on both sides, about 7 to 10 minutes. Remove from the pan and drain.
Keeping the pan over medium heat, add the peppers, onions, salt, and pepper and cook until golden brown, about 5 minutes. Add the oregano, basil, and garlic and cook 2 more minutes.
Add the tomato paste and stir. Add the Marsala wine, tomatoes, and chili flakes, if using. Stir to combine, scraping the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon to release all the browned bits. Bring to a simmer.


Cut the sausages into 4 to 6 pieces each, about 1-inch cubes. Add the sausage back to the pan and stir to combine. Cook until the sauce has thickened, about 20 minutes.
Serve in bowls. Or, if serving as a sandwich, split the rolls in half lengthwise. Hollow out the bread from the bottom side of each roll, being careful not to puncture the crust. Fill the bottom half of the roll with sausage mixture. Top and serve sandwiches immediately.

Printable recipe

Banana Muffins - The Art of Quick and Easy Breakfast

Breakfast is a harrowing time for me. I'm not disciplined enough wake up before my kids - generally it is the sound of my 8 month old whining for his breast milk at 6:45 AM which causes me to stumble down the hallway and grab him for his morning breastfeed. Then older daughter wakes up, bounces into my room full of energy and chattering a mile a minute. Meanwhile daughter #2 starts calling out from her crib asking to be let out while she sings "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." The chaos and frantic energy at 7:10 AM is almost too much for my jangled nerves to bear.

By the time breastfeeding is over, diapers are changed and we go downstairs, the only food my brain can offer my children is often some sort of egg product and toast. A lot of times we have cereal. Many times we have milk and toast. But every once in a while, I get motivated and I make banana muffins. All it requires is 10 minutes the night before and then it is 6 minutes in the morning to put together, and another 30 minutes in the oven. If you're a bit of a planner, it's possible to get this all done and have delicious warm muffins for your children. (and for you too - to savor with the cup of coffee or tea you have as you rush your kids out the door and get them to school.)

These banana muffins are the result of a bit of experimentation for my dairy free, soy-free diet. They are butter AND egg free - and the results are pretty tasty considering the lack of both of those products. (you are free to add them if you prefer - but experiment with them both ways.)

A little tip - most of the time, my kids cannot finish a whole banana. They'll finish half. Then I'm stuck with a half-eaten banana, which often isn't appealing. What I do is, I cut off the eaten bit and then put the other uneaten half into a ziploc bag and stick it in the freezer. (this is a peeled banana.) Next time I have another half-eaten banana - same thing, and stick it in the same bag, until I have a bag that is equivalent to about 4-5 whole bananas. When it comes time to make the banana muffins, the night before I just stick the frozen banana bag into the refrigerator and then it's ready for me, defrosted, in the morning. The same goes for overly ripe bananas - don't throw them away -if they are starting to look gross and overly ripe, peel them and stick them in a plastic bag and freeze it to make into banana muffins one morning.

Preparation tip - Sift your dry ingredients into one bowl the night before. Measure out your sugar in another, bigger bowl. Leave out measuring cup, measuring spoon, oil, vanilla extract, spatula, ice cream scoop (this is a worthwhile investment to make easy scooping and portioning of muffin batter), and fully lined muffin pan with. The next morning - all you have to do is preheat your oven, mash banana into the sugar, add oil and vanilla and dump in the pre-sifted flour mixture. VOILA! into the oven!

Banana Muffins (nuts and egg optional)
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon salt (only 1/2 teaspoon if you are using butter)
4-5 large bananas, mashed (depends on how banana-y you like it)
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg (OPTIONAL - you can leave it out)
1/3 cup safflower oil or sunflower oil (or butter if you prefer)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Coat muffin pans with non-stick spray, or use paper liners. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt; set aside. (DO THIS THE NIGHT BEFORE)

Combine bananas, sugar, egg (optional), vanilla and oil (or butter) in a large bowl. Fold in flour mixture, and mix until smooth. Add nuts (optional). Scoop into muffin pan.

Bake in preheated oven. Bake mini muffins for 10 to 15 minutes and large muffins for 25 to 30 minutes. Muffins will spring back when lightly tapped.

Printable Recipe

Steamed Mussels, Green Salad, Garlic Bread - Conquering the Fear

My husband and two girls absolutely LOVE steamed clams and mussels. If we ever ventured out and happened to go to a seafood restaurant, one of the things we often ordered was a bucket of steamed clams. My girls and husband would go clam crazy - ripping them open (even my two year old), sucking out the delicious juice, and chewing the sweet meat. It was always wonderful to watch and yet I felt inadequate. I was not sure of my ability to produce such a response given I was scared of cooking clams and mussels.

However, after watching more than a few Food Network shows where different chefs went on and on about cooking clams and mussels and watching Top Chef (I love this show!) where everyone cooked with clams or mussels at one point, I felt that I had to overcome this insecurity. I went to Costco during their "Seafood Road Show" (usually every weekend) picked up a package of mussels, and set about trying to figure out how to make them.

As it turns out, it is super EASY to make clams and mussels and the results are more than delicious. They are impressive to serve (because I think many people are scared of trying to make them) but make a very quick and delicious meal. Some garlic bread or garlic toasts on the side to sop up the delicious broth is a must. With a simple green salad, you've got a very nice light meal. Another possible option is to just boil some pasta and serve it on top of some pasta.

A few things to remember:

1. Mussels and clams are alive and need to be alive in order to ensure that someone doesn't get sick when eating them. They should be CLOSED before cooking. Live ones, if open, will close when tapped. If it is open and doesn't close don't bother cooking it and throw it out.

2. Wash them WELL. This means filling up a huge basin of water, and putting them in there and rinsing them, draining them, and repeating over and over until you're tired. This is actually the MOST difficult part of the whole cooking process.

3. After cooking, the ones that are CLOSED are now no good - throw those babies out.

Steamed Mussels in Saffron Wine Broth (feel free to substitute clams or cockles)

4 pounds mussels
1 cup boiling water
4-5 saffron threads
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 shallot, minced
2 garlic cloves, shaved
4 sprigs fresh thyme
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 lemon, juiced
Pinch red pepper flakes (optional)
1 tomato, peeled, seeded and cut in large dice
1/2 cup roughly chopped parsley
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Rinse the mussels under cold running water while scrubbing with a vegetable brush. Discard any with broken shells. Dissolve saffron threads in boiling water. Set aside.

Heat oil in a 6 to 8-quart stockpot. Saute the shallot, garlic and thyme to create a base flavor. Add the mussels and give them a good toss. Add wine, lemon juice, saffron juice, and red pepper flakes; cover the pot and steam over medium-high for 5 minutes until the mussels open. Toss in the tomato, parsley and butter, recover the pot, and steam for another minute to soften. The tomatoes should keep their shape. Serve with plenty of grilled garlic bread to sop up the broth.

Orzo Salad and The Influential Power of Simple Food

As a former teacher, I always think very kindly upon those lovely human beings who are put in the position to care for my two girls in school. When I see them, I am often reminded of my days back in the high school English classroom, working away, often by 11:00, with a gnawing feeling in my stomach. Unlike an office job, where sometimes it is possible to sneak away early for lunch, or to grab a quick snack at your desk, teaching does not afford you these mini luxuries or getaways when you are hungry. I would often stand in front teaching, and then would think to myself, "Man - I am HUNGRY" and would be thinking about what to eat. There were SOME DAYS, where I wouldn't manage to get it together and pack myself a lunch in the morning before rushing off to school. Those days were the WORST. Because it meant I either had to:
A: eat in a totally disgusting cafeteria filled with nasty reheated fast food
B: run off of campus in my car and quickly grab some fresh fast food (does such a thing
exist?), but not have enough time to eat before lunch was over
C: eat the essays that I hadn't finished grading
D: starve
All of the options above were not appealing in any way shape or form but I've suffered through debating those options on more than one occasion. However, one day, a lovely student's mother brought me lunch - a delicious homemade lunch. And I've never forgotten it. It was a simple meal of some chicken and rice, but it was hot and made with someone's hands. I doubt in my many years of teaching I've tasted something that yummy. Needless to say, I always held a soft spot for that student and her mother.

Which brings me to the title of this post - Influential Power of Simple Food. What our two presidential candidates should do to win the popular vote is this - cook for the people. Instead of debates, provide delicious homemade food to those people who are working and too busy to cook for themselves. I am sure that many a vote would be won by the candidate whose food was most delicious, nourishing and satisfying. However, since politicians are far too blinded by the "big picture" to see the small things, I encourage all of you dear readers to try it for yourself. Cook something simple and give it to a teacher, a workmate or a friend who is need of a little affection. It will influence their goodwill towards you in such a keen and powerful way. NO ONE hates the hands that feeds him or her.

So what to cook? I have the perfect dish - Orzo Salad by Giada de Laurentiis. It is satisfying, delicious and totally easy to make. It requires basically, boiling water and cooking some orzo, making a dressing, chopping some vegetables and tossing it all together. It's very simple. It is universally appealing - I have yet to meet a person who does not love this recipe. I've made it for my daughters' teachers at school, and it's always met with rave reviews. I've made it for friends. Even one of my friends, a very accomplished cook herself, says, "it's always better when someone else makes it for you." I've posted this salad before as a side dish to BBQ, but now I'm encouraging all of you to try and make it to give it to someone who may be a bit hungry.

(picture above is the salad which I packed for a few teachers at my daughter's school.)

Orzo with Tomatoes, Feta, and Green Onions (by Giada de Laurentiis)

Makes 8 servings.

Ingredients
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon honey
1/2 cup olive oil

6 cups chicken broth (I actually use well salted plain water, not the chicken broth.)
1 pound orzo (or riso)

2 cups red and yellow teardrop or grape tomatoes, halved
1 7-ounce package feta cheese, cut into 1/2-inch cubes (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 cup chopped fresh basil
1 cup chopped green onions
1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted

Whisk vinegar, lemon juice, and honey in small bowl. Gradually whisk in oil. Season vinaigrette with salt and pepper. (Can be made 2 days ahead. Cover and chill.)

Bring broth to boil in large heavy saucepan. Stir in orzo, reduce heat to medium, cover partially, and boil until tender but still firm to bite, stirring occasionally. Drain. Transfer to large wide bowl, tossing frequently until cool.

Mix tomatoes, feta, basil, and green onions into orzo. Add vinaigrette; toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper. (Can be made 2 hours ahead. Let stand at room temperature.) Add pine nuts; toss. Serve at room temperature.

Printable recipe

Cook some and use your influence today!

BBQ Ribs with Healthy Quinoa and Steamed Broccoli

Clearly ribs have gotten a bad reputation. They are junk food, not healthy, not good for you - but I often think it is the traditional side dishes that people put with ribs that make it not so good for you - fries, coleslaw, potato salad, buttery corn on the cob. I love ribs so I try to "health" them up by matching it with non-traditional sides - generally moving towards the very healthy to balance against the seemingly unhealthy ribs.

The key, of course, is trying to figure out the balance of flavors - which I'm not always so good at. But I had some quinoa that I wanted to try cooking with and some broccoli that I wanted to serve steamed and cold with this lemon vinaigrette. (I've posted this recipe before.) I wanted the quinoa to highlight some of the flavors I was using in the BBQ rib sauce - apricots, cumin and just the general tangy sweetness of the sauce. It was a good meal; the kids liked the quinoa quite a bit (and it is SO healthy to boot!) and it all seemed to work well together.


Quinoa with Apricots, Cranberries, and Green Onions

Ingredients
2 c quinoa
4 c water
1/2 c diced apricots
1/2 c cranberries
1 c green onions
1/3c olive oil
2 T vinegar or lemon juice
1 T cinnamon
1 t cumin
salt and pepper to taste

Cook the quinoa according to package directions. (2 cups of quinoa will be cooked in 4 cups of water.) Once the quinoa has cooked and cooled add apricots, cranberries, green onions. Mix in a separate bowl olive oil, vinegar, cinnamon and cumin. Pour over quinoa and fruit mixture. Mix well. Salt and pepper to taste. You can serve it room temperature or cold.



Lemon Vinaigrette
1 garlic clove
1 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons white-wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest
Freshly ground black pepper
3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

To make the Dressing: Mince garlic and mash to a paste with salt. In a bowl whisk together garlic paste, lemon juice, vinegar, zest, and pepper and whisk in oil until emulsified. (Dressing may be made 1 day ahead and chilled, covered. Bring dressing to room temperature before serving.)

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/saras-secrets/make-your-own-salad-with-lemon-garlic-dressing-recipe/index.html

The Ultimate Barbecued Baby Back Ribs (Tyler Florence)
2 slabs baby back ribs (about 3 pounds)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Extra-virgin olive oil
2 bacon slices
4 sprigs fresh thyme
1/2 onion
3 smashed garlic cloves
2 cups ketchup
1 cup peach preserves
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard or 1 tablespoon dry mustard
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 cup molasses
2 tablespoons red or white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground paprika

Special equipment: Kitchen twine

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F. Put the ribs on a baking sheet, season with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil. Stick them in the oven, and let the ribs bake, low and slow for 2 hours.

Meanwhile, make the sauce. Wrap the bacon around the middle of the thyme sprigs and tie with kitchen twine so you have a nice bundle. Heat a 2-count of oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the thyme bundle and cook slowly for 3 to 4 minutes to render the bacon fat and give the sauce a nice smoky taste. Add the onion and garlic and cook slowly, without coloring, for 5 minutes. Add all of the rest of the sauce ingredients, give the sauce a stir, and turn the heat down to low. Cook slowly for 20 minutes to meld the flavors. Put some sauce in a separate bowl for basting, reserving the remaining sauce for serving.

Baste the ribs with the sauce and let them continue cooking, basting twice more, for 30 more minutes. When the ribs are cooked, take them out of the oven. You can let them hang out like this until you're ready to eat.

When ready to eat, preheat the broiler for 5 minutes and broil the ribs, basting with the sauce. They should become crisp and charred, about 5 minutes on each side. Pick the onion and garlic out of the sauce and serve with ribs.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/the-ultimate-barbecued-ribs-recipe/index.html

Pseudo Bibimbap (Korean Mixed Rice) with Gohlee Gook (Oxtail Soup)

Probably one of the better known Korean meal-in-a-bowl is Bibimbap. In Korea, it's a lunchtime staple. It's healthy with a balance of protein found in egg and beef, mixed vegetables, and rice. I happen to love eating it - making it, not so much. To create the multi-colored vegetable mixture - of carrots, zucchini, onions, mushrooms, spinach, fiddleheads (gobi nameul) - is not a job easily done. I often liken it to a Herculean task. Each of the vegetables has to be washed, julienned and then individually sauteed and prepared so that you have 5 or 6 individual components to be placed on top. Not fun.

BUT - I have a fast version - that tastes good. It's not as DELICIOUS as the real version, but the pseudo version can be whipped up pretty quickly if you have a few things. If you've followed my suggestion about making extra bulgogi (Korean marinated thin sliced ribeye) when you marinate and then leaving it frozen - you have one component. (Beef Marinade) If you have followed my other suggestion of making additional gohlee gohm tang and put that in the freezer, you have another component. Then - all you need REALLY is to make the spinach nameul.

My kids love this - what I do is cook up the bulgogi, and then run my knife through it and chop it up into tiny pieces. Then I do the same for spinach. I put it on top of hot rice (our house is 50/50 brown and white) and a touch of sesame oil and a touch of soy sauce.

I mix it all together, and then serve it to the girls in their rice bowls.


Once they have this, they have their gohlee gook on the side, they have their complete meal.

For adults, just substitute gotchoojahng (Korean red pepper paste) for the soy, add sesame oil and mix for a treat.

Optional is a fried egg, sunny side up, served on top.

Happy Eating!

Spinach Nameul Banchan Mini Lesson ( 시금치나물 Korean Spinach Side Dish)

I tried unsuccessfully, a few weeks back, to teach some techniques to make a better spinach side dish. All I did, it seems, was write a bunch of words that only made sense to me. I'm attempting to do it again, with photographs, in the hopes that it will be better and more clear. Please don't let the poor photography distract you from the technique - which is what is important here.

Spinach Side Dish (시금치나물)
Ingredients
2 bunches of spinach, washed VERY VERY well. (no one likes to eat grit - rinse at least 4 times.)
1 teaspoons soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1 tablespoon ground toasted sesame seeds
2 scallions. finely chopped (optional)
1 clove of garlic crushed (optional - it does tend to leave a VERY strong taste in the mouth so I lean towards not using it.)


Prepare a large pot of boiling water - do NOT be tempted to use a smaller pot as the bigger the pot, the quicker and more efficiently you can blanch evenly - otherwise you can have some bits which are MORE soggy - YUCK. Bring the water to a rolling boil - and then remove from heat. Do NOT leave it boiling as it will overly wilt your spinach.

Dump the all the spinach into the just boiled water and immerse and stir. This part is the tricky part - you don't' want to over cook it, but how long actually depends on your spinach - smaller, more tender leaves require less time, while the bigger larger leaves, require more - I generally try and err on the side of less cooking. 30 seconds to 1 minute of dunking is usually enough.


Quickly drain the spinach in a colander. Now - this may sound weird, but once your spinach is drained, arrange your spinach in the colander into a donut shape - this is to provide the greatest surface area for cooling - if you leave it in a pile in the middle you will actually not cool it and you'll end up with soggy spinach in the center...you want to try and cool it as much as possible.

Alternatively you could spread it out on a tray or a cookie sheet, but I do find the donut technique quite efficient and effective. Let your spinach COOL - I like to wait at least 30 minutes, but depending on what I'm doing, sometimes I don't get to it until an hour later.

Now - grab a handful of your spinach and squeeze out the excess water over the sink. You don't want to over-squeeze but you don't want soggy spinach. You'll have to play around with it to figure out how much to squeeze. Squeeze water out of the entire pile.


Then roughly chop all your squeezed out spinach - so you don't' have some huge obnoxious long stringy thing that could potentially choke your husband or your child. I basically pile the spinach up and go down the chopping board at about 1.5 inch intervals.


Put it in a bowl and let cool some more. I usually stick it in the fridge at this point, and I will get to it right before I serve. This is something that you can do in the morning, leave in the fridge and then just mix the seasonings in right before dinner.


On your cold, squeezed, chopped spinach - add soy sauce, salt and mix. Taste - make sure it is seasoned to your liking...if it meets your salt flavor requirement, then add some sesame oil to seal in the flavor. Also grind some freshly grated sesame seeds on top. Now you have your beautiful spinach.

A Better Turkey Meatloaf, Easy Roasted Potatoes, and Steamed Asparagus

The recipe from Epicurious.com for Turkey Meatloaf has been a mainstay at our house for almost a year (since moving back to the US and having ground turkey readily available.) But in the process of using it, I've also been fiddling around with it changing it up to suit my needs - basically adding more veggies and eliminating soy and dairy from it. And so yesterday, I built, what I consider to be, a Better Turkey Meatloaf. What made it better for me is that I eliminated eggs, milk and hidden sources of soy, and upped the veggies and made it lighter yet more flavorful. So - I kept TRACK (for once) of my experimentation and here it is below.

Now - this isn't exactly a 1 hour from start to finish make it to the table meal - HOWEVER - if you would do the first portion the night before or in the morning, then it comes together really quickly the day of dinner and you can simply put it in the oven to cook.

The potatoes are SOOO easy it will make up for the technical skill used in the meatloaf, as this one requires none whatsoever. I saw Ina Garten do it on the Barefoot Contessa on the food Network and was intrigued. Hers used butter - I can't have dairy so I did it with olive oil with equal success. I'm sure butter would taste better but olive oil tasted pretty darn good, so I'm not complaining.


A Better Turkey Meatloaf

The recipe makes 2 loaves (eat one now, freeze one to eat later.)

Ingredients

2.5 lbs ground turkey
3 onions, finely chopped
3 carrots, finely chopped
2 zucchini, finely chopped
16 oz white mushrooms, finely chopped
5 cloves of garlic, minced or through a press
4 sprigs of thyme, leaves removed and roughly chopped
1 t salt
1 t black pepper
2 T Worcestershire Sauce
1/2 c ketchup
6 slices of whole wheat bread (soy free if you need it to be) toasted and ground into crumbs.

For Topping
1/2 c ketchup
1/2 c balsamic vinegar

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Cook onion and garlic in oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over moderate heat, stirring, until onion is softened, about 2 minutes. Add carrot and cook, stirring, until softened, about 3 minutes. Add mushrooms, zucchini, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1 teaspoon pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until liquid mushrooms give off is evaporated and they are very tender, 10 to 15 minutes. Stir in Worcestershire sauce, thyme, and 1/2 c ketchup, then transfer vegetables to a large bowl and cool.

In a work bowl, add breadcrumbs and mix with cooled vegetables.then add to vegetables. Add turkey to vegetable mixture and mix well with your hands. (Mixture will be very moist.)

Form into 2 9- by 5-inch oval loaf in a lightly oiled 13- by 9- by 2-inch metal baking pan and brush meatloaf evenly with balsamic vinegar ketchup topping. Bake in middle of oven until thermometer inserted into meatloaf registers 170°F, 50 to 55 minutes.

The original recipe is here:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/TURKEY-MEATLOAF-107599

Herbed New Potatoes

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
2 1/2 pounds small white or Yukon gold potatoes, scrubbed but not peeled
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons chopped mixed fresh green herbs, such as parsley, chives, and dill

Melt the butter in a Dutch oven or large heavy-bottomed pot. Add the whole potatoes, salt, and pepper and toss well. Cover the pot tightly and cook over low heat for 20 to 30 minutes, until the potatoes are just tender when tested with a small knife. From time to time, shake the pot without removing the lid to prevent the bottom potatoes from burning. Turn off the heat and allow the potatoes to steam for another 5 minutes. Don't overcook! Toss with the herbs, and serve hot.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/herbed-new-potatoes-recipe/index.html

One Dish Complete Pasta Meal

Sometimes what paralyzes me when I think about cooking, is thinking about the number of dishes I'll have to do afterwards. Korean food, for this reason, can be daunting with its numerous side dishes, separate rice bowl, separate soup bowl, separate side dish plates. It's enough to make a cooking person nuts! Which is why, when I cook Western food, I often find myself looking for the dish or complete meal that can be done with minimal plates, dishes, and preparation materials.

So - when I came upon this recipe of Giada de Laurentis, I was quite excited. It was a one dish pasta meal, and it was pretty tasty, even after I made it dairy free. I liked it enough to post it in the blog a few weeks back. The major drawback for me however, was that I felt that it didn't have enough green vegetables to make it a complete one-dish meal. Therefore, today I experimented with wilting baby spinach and baby arugula in the dish - and it was yummy! The girls had it with wilted spinach (because older daughter often complains that arugula is spicy) and grownups had it with wilted arugula. I tried both and found the arugula far more delicious, but for the kids, spinach has a milder flavor and but good for adding the green. Both are yummy, but being the arugula lover I am - I choose arugula first. One more change is that I used the mini farfalle which is now available, as it's easier for the girls to eat. It is a one dish meal and means minimal cleanup, which sometimes means more than anything.

Below is my modification, and the link below that will take you to the original recipe.

Mini Farfalle with Sun-Dried Tomatoes, Sausage, Artichokes and Spinach/Arugula

3/4 cup drained oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, sliced, 2 tablespoons of oil reserved
1 pound Italian hot sausages, casings removed
2 (8-ounce) packages frozen artichoke hearts
5 large cloves garlic, chopped (I like it garlicky, and since there is no cheese I thought I needed extra flavor)
1 3/4 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup dry white wine
16 ounces mini farfalle pasta
1/3 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
1 cup of cherry tomatoes, cut in half
3 cups of either baby arugula or baby spinach, washed and dried
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Heat the oil reserved from the tomatoes in a heavy large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the sausages and cook until brown, breaking up the meat into bite-size pieces with a fork, about 8 minutes. Transfer the sausage to a bowl. Add the artichokes and garlic to the same skillet, and saute over medium heat until the garlic is tender, about 2 minutes. Add the broth, wine, and sun-dried tomatoes. Boil over medium-high heat until the sauce reduces slightly, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the fusilli in boiling water until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring often, about 8 minutes. Drain the pasta (do not rinse). Add the pasta, sausage, basil, and tomato to the artichoke mixture. Toss until the sauce is almost absorbed by the pasta. Stir in the arugula/spinach. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper. Serve.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/fusilli-with-sausage-artichokes-and-sun-dried-tomatoes-recipe/index.html

BBQ Chicken, Orzo Salad, and Corn on the Cob

During these nice summer months, husband likes to grill. Always I choose to do ribeye, since it grills up so well (husband can't mess it up) and is simple in its preparation of a rub of olive oil and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. However, husband suggested earlier this week that for a change of pace, grilling chicken. It just sounded a bit bland to me, so I looked at recipes hoping to find some inspiration...and there it was - BBQ Chicken with a Balsamic BBQ sauce. (Giada De Laurentis' recipe) My kids love balsamic vinegar so I figured that a sauce with it would go over very well. I decided to make the sauce ahead of time, because I wasn't exactly QUITE sure which day we'd have the chicken, but if the sauce was done, it would be a matter of pulling out the chicken and just basting it with the sauce. While making the sauce, Emily (oldest child) came out and said, "Mom it smells good. It smells like ribs or something yummy." She was smelling that sharp, pungent vinegar smell which is also a smell that comes out when making bbq sauce for ribs. It was already looking to be a promising recipe.

However, grilling the chicken WELL is a different story. I used bone in, skin on thigh meat. Bobby Flay (BBQ grill chef on Food Network) often talks about how hard it is to grill with a sauce on top - because generally the sauce burns up and then you have raw burnt chicken (which sort of looks like what we had - see picture above.) I tried to side step this problem by coating the chicken in olive oil and sprinkling it with salt and pepper and told husband to grill without the sauce until later. I wanted to, in theory, crisp up the chicken skin and then coat it in bbq sauce and finish it off by caramelizing the sauce lightly. Giada in the recipe stated to lightly baste the chicken with the sauce as it cooked. Even though I did the sauce at the end, and not as Giada instructed, the sauce decided to burn faster than the chicken would cook. Husband and I also disagreed on cooking method - he chose to close the lid of the bbq, which I was opposed to - I wanted an open lid and semi high heat - but he said that the only way it would cook would be to shut the lid. I think a combination of factors - husband who was being stubborn about cooking method, overly cold chicken on the grill (usually you like to leave meat for a good 20 minutes to raise the temperature slightly, and sticky sauce all contributed to rather over browned chicken on the outside.

I also chose to do the orzo that Giada paired with it - A Tricolore Orzo - which is orzo with cherries (I used cranberries instead), arugula, basil, feta and pine nuts in a very light lemon and olive oil dressing. Unfortunately due to my dietary restrictions of no dairy and no nuts, I chose to leave those two ingredients out. The orzo was good without it, but would be FANTASTIC with the feta and the pinenuts. It was missing a bit of the salty bite that would have come from the feta and the richness and crunch from the pinenuts. But it was still good without those ingredients. Kids loved it and ate quite a few of the cranberries and arugula with chicken. I apologized to husband for missing ingredients and he commented that he didn't mind the missing feta and still thought it quite tasty.

All in all, the chicken and sauce were really good (could be better if it was properly cooked) and the orzo really yummy. Giada offers tips on how to cook the chicken in the oven if you're not in the mood to cook on the grill - and I will probably try this method once as well.

Enjoy!

Chicken or Steak with Balsamic BBQ sauce

For the Balsamic BBQ sauce:
1 cup balsamic vinegar
3/4 cup ketchup
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

For the chicken or steak:
4 pieces chicken (any combination of breast or leg-and-thigh pieces) or 4 pieces of New York strip or Club strip steak
Salt and freshly ground pepper

For the BBQ sauce:

Combine all the ingredients in a small saucepan and stir until all the ingredients are incorporated and the mixture is smooth. Simmer over medium heat until reduced by 1/3, about 15 to 20 minutes.

For the chicken or steak:

Place a grill pan over medium heat or preheat a gas or charcoal grill. Season the meat with salt and pepper. Lightly coat with some of the BBQ sauce using a pastry brush. Place the meat on the grill. Place the remaining BBQ sauce, still in the small saucepan, over low heat or on the edge of a gas or charcoal grill and allow to gently simmer while the meat cooks.

Cook the chicken about 8 minutes per side. Cook the steaks starting at about 4 minutes per side until a meat thermometer reads the desired temperature, 120 degrees F for medium rare, 135 degrees F for medium (about 6 minutes per side), 155 degrees F for well done (about 9 minutes per side). Continually brush the meat with BBQ sauce every few minutes. Remove the meat from the grill and let rest for at least 5 minutes. Serve with the heated BBQ sauce alongside.

Alternately, the chicken can be baked in the oven. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Place the chicken skin side up in a baking dish and bake for 25 minutes. Remove the baking dish from the oven and spoon the BBQ sauce all over the top of the chicken. Return the baking dish to the oven and bake for another 15 minutes.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/chicken-or-steak-with-balsamic-bbq-sauce-recipe/index.html

Tri-colore Orzo

1 pound orzo pasta
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus 1/4 cup
2 cups fresh arugula (about 3 ounces)
3/4 cup crumbled ricotta salata cheese (or feta cheese)
1/2 cup dried cherries
12 fresh basil leaves, torn
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain pasta and put the pasta on a large cookie sheet. Drizzle the pasta with 3 tablespoons olive oil, toss, spread out, and set aside to cool.

Once the orzo is cool, transfer to a large serving bowl. Add the remaining ingredients and toss gently to combine. Serve.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/tri-colore-orzo-recipe/index.html

Turkey Chili (or you can use beef if you like)

I'm mad crazy about chili. I often tell people that I'm going to one day enter a contest for chili. In fact, in college, I did win blue ribbon at a chili competition. That chili recipe and the one below are not similar at all. Which is why I love chili. It can change depending on your mood. The chili I made as a 19 year old in college (Smoky black bean chicken chili) is different from the chili I make now as a wiser woman (Spicy turkey chili). Many people claim to make "THE authentic chili" - I make no such claim. I make the chili that I like to eat...which is probably far from authentic knowing what I do know about chili. This is a baseline recipe - you can play around with it and fiddle with it as you see fit.

** again please excuse food photography. It's super hard and now I have immense respect for those folks who manage to make food look so good in books and magazines.

Spicy Turkey Chili (this makes a HUGE pot, because chili, freezes super well and tastes better after it's been sitting for a day or two.) So freeze half and eat half.

Ingredients
2.5 lbs ground turkey
2 onions diced
3 red, orange or yellow bell peppers - diced
6 carrots diced
10 cloves garlic - minced or forced through garlic press
olive oil
8 oz sausage of your choice - I usually use some gourmet chicken apple something or other
1/4 cup chili powder (but you may use more or less depending on your tastes buds)
2 T ancho chili powder (optional - I've just been playing around with different kind of chilis - you can just use chili powder)
2 t or more of cayenne chili powder (this is the spice - so if you don't want heat, use sparingly)
3 T oregano
Salt
2 T honey
1 can or bottle of beer - any kind is fine
3 14.5 oz cans of diced tomatoes with their juices
2 15 oz cans of black beans (I like to use low sodium) rinsed and drained

Heat a large pot over medium high heat. Add olive oil and put in all the ground turkey. Add onions and break up the turkey with the onions. Add carrots. Add chili powder, oregano and some salt here. It is important to season at this stage and not at the end - otherwise the food just tastes SALTY and not well seasoned. So add some salt at this stage. Keep cooking until the turkey is cooked through. Add all the bell peppers and the garlic and cook for 2 minutes. Add entire can of beer. There will be some liquid forming at the bottom - that's okay. Allow all the beer and liquids to simmer together 10 minutes.

Add all of your tomatoes. Stir. Add sausages and honey. Test seasonings. Add salt if necessary. Finally, add beans. Allow the flavors to meld - simmer over low heat for 20 minutes. Check again and adjust seasonings - feel free to add more chili powder if you want more OOMPH.

Serve with a variety of topping options: sour cream, cheddar cheese, chopped raw oniion, chopped cilantro, diced avocado.

Printable recipe

Cheeseburger/hamburger Night

When looking for inspiration for what to cook, I find myself often asking my daughter Emily - who has, at age 4, what many would consider a fairly refined palate. She knows what tastes good, refuses those things that aren't delicious, devours those things that are, and all in all, amaze people when they see what she eats. She eats many things that I don't even dare put in my mouth (for example UNI - YUCK) and is very good and thinking about what she likes to eat for dinner. Oftentimes if I put something in front of her, she'll say, "Mommy I wanted to eat ___________ (insert some other food) not this!" To limit these comments to one or two a week, I like to have her choose. Yesterday she was disappointed in her meal - so I asked her what she would like to eat for the following night's dinner, and her answer "Cheeseburgers."

Many moms don't consider this to be a good meal - I beg to differ. For one, you can control the beef/fat content. Many chefs consider the 80/20 ground chuck/fat to be the ideal ground beef for a burger. I don't use that. I make our family's with a mix of 90/10 and 93/7 sirloin - and it's still got enough fat for flavor. Perhaps it's not as tender and juicy - but my girls don't notice, and I for one, am not fond of fat rivers going down my daughters' arms. To combat the "less fatty" beef, I also like to top the burgers with caramelized onions - which adds a huge flavor punch so that you don't really miss the fat. I also get to control the sides - we always do a green vegetable; tonight it was green beans. Sometimes I won't do a starch, but today I did oven roasted fries only because Bella has been asking for them and I'd rather she have mine vs. something from McDonalds.

We did mini sliders, so that the girls could "finish" theirs, and mom and dad could have two or three depending on appetites. I cooked them up in a fry pan, toasted dinner rolls in the toaster oven, topped it with caramelized onions and voila! Burger time.

** Excuse my photograph - I don't know how to photograph food yet. I was inspired to post a picture because it seems all the other food blogs do, but I'm not good at shooting food - I guess there is an art to that - and that is just too much stuff for me to figure out.

Green Bean Salad
I got this dressing off of the Food Network (Sara Moulton) and it is originally supposed to go on some salad. It actually tastes AMAZING on broccoli, which is what we had it with last night, and the girls loved it on their green beans tonight. I simply blanched my beans for 3 minutes (get your water to a rolling boil, and then stick the beans in and cook for 3 and remove from heat and dump in ice water) and then let them cool. When it was time to eat, I just tossed the beans in the dressing. Easy and delicious.

Lemon Garlic Dressing:
1 garlic clove
1 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons white-wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest
Freshly ground black pepper
3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

To make the Dressing: Mince garlic and mash to a paste with salt. In a bowl whisk together garlic paste, lemon juice, vinegar, zest, and pepper and whisk in oil until emulsified. (Dressing may be made 1 day ahead and chilled, covered. Bring dressing to room temperature before serving.)

Oven Fries

3 Idaho potatoes, washed and cut into 8 or 9 wedges each, skin still on
1 T paprika
1 t oregano
1/4 c olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 425. Toss all ingredients together in a bowl. Carefully lay out all the potatoes in a SINGLE layer on a cookie sheet. Stick it in the oven for 30 minutes, or until golden brown. You CAN flip them over if you'd like, but I don't bother. I just let them do their thing roasting and they are delicious. Serve with ketchup.

First Official "Blog" Kimchee Chigae Mini Lesson

Here we go - my life as an official blogger. I'm not sure how I feel about it. It's a lot more pressure for some reason. On the email, my thoughts and advice were private - here in this blogspace - far more public and leaves me feeling like there is more scrutiny. It's also strange, sharing my thoughts and ideas with people who may not know me, have never eaten my cooking, and has never experienced a meal at my table at my home. For me, I cook because I love those for whom I cook - and that is what drives me. But to talk about cooking to people aside from my circle of friends...leaves me feeling vulnerable. It's like sharing my secret thoughts with a stranger. I hope to get used to it.

Being soy and dairy free for the sake of my son's skin has taken its toll on my cooking freedom and inspiration. Namely Husband and the girls have suffered because I can't TASTE anything. So - I do a lot of guess work when I cook with soy and "forbidden" foods - and because I can't taste, I feel like I cook less foods with Asian flavors. I'm less inspired, less excited about cooking because I'm so scared of what it could do to Son's skin.

BUT - I keep trying. (for the sake of my kids and husband anyways.)

Mini Lesson - Kimchee Chigae (for our non-Korean readers, Kimchee Stew or some call it Kimchee casserole)

I wrote about kimchee chigae a while back - but I thought I should do a mini lesson on it - simply because, in a pinch - you have CHIGAE. All it requires is a few simple ingredients, and the results are magnificent. Out of all of my dietary sacrifices for Edward, I'm finding kimchee chigae hardest to give up. (Both kimchee and the chigae have the baby shrimp in brine - Edward is allergic to this as well.)

Ingredients - Serves 4

2-3 teaspoons sesame oil (or if you're able to find it, deul geeleum, which is wild sesame oil. FABULOUS in kimchee chigae)
2-3 slices of samgyupsahl (pork belly)
2 teaspoons of finely chopped sae-woo juht (baby shrimp in brine)
1 onion, diced
2-3 cups of Kimchee (you can have some super ripe one if you've saved it up - if not, just use regular kimchee. It will simply take longer to cook.)
freshly crushed/ground sesame seeds
1 pack of firm tofu, sliced

Finely chop your baby shrimp in brine. Into a pot on medium heat, put sesame oil in and dump in pork belly as well as the baby shrimp. Add onions. Saute until pork is browned and fat is rendered. Add kimchee and saute briefly. Add water to cover kimchee. Cover and let simmer. Amount of cooking time varies depending on the ripeness of your kimchee.

Cooking is complete after kimchee is clear and tender, and broth is rich and red. Place tofu on top of the soup and cook an additional 5 minutes, until tofu is heated through.

Serve!

A Week of Menus - Beef Marinade

Had a few comments from people complained that I had left them off of last week's menu - sorry - UNINSPIRED last week - so didn't do anything! So you weren't left off -there just wasn't a menu. hehehe...to give you an idea of what I served my family - one night it was defrosted gohlee gohmtangm, fried spam, rice and kimchee (washed for the kids) for dinner...that was the sort of week I had...

I got some great feedback - TWO people (thank you Jeannie and Linda) went out on a limb and tried the kalbi ggim and both had great reviews for it. Linda added moo to hers and said it was really good and so that is something else you can put in your kalbi ggim for a slight change. Also, Linda experienced the joys of freezing gohlee gook, and then turning it into a quick mandoo gook for her family a week later...to rave reviews. It is TOTALLY worth freezing the gook to have on hand for later...so it is well worth your time...your gohlee can be boiled several times to get that good rich white broth. please see mini lesson from a few weeks ago as to technique. Hannah tried agrodolce Salmon and said it was a winner - so I'm happy to hear that.

Marinating Mini Lesson (had a request from one of my loyal readers)

Korean beef is generally based on a good marinade and if you have a good one, you can do a lot of things with it. The following marinade can be used to marinate flank steak, which then can be grilled and sliced across the grain for a really nice meat - flank steak, kalbi, or bulgoki. Another trick to marinating and saving time - it doesn't hurt to do MORE and actually the effort to do more is well worth it - because it doesn't actually take more time to marinate more meat. I usually do a triple portion, and then I have enough to freeze two packs of whatever (kalbi, bulgoki or flank) and then I can quickly defrost it if I want to make something with it in the next month or so. So when you buy your meat, just buy extra with the thought that you'll freeze some to have ready for a quick meal later.

Marinade (for about 3-4lbs of meat) (easily doubled)

1/2 cup soy
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup sesame oil
1/4 cup sake
2 T garlic (or more if you like it more garlicky)
sesame seeds
black pepper

These days, you'll see lots of recipes where people add sriracha to the marinade, or ginger or pear juice - but I'm a purist. Grated pear is quite popular in a lot of kalbi marinades in korea, so you could experiment with grating an Asian pear into your marinade and see if you like it.

One trick - which may sound incredibly time consuming, but really isn't, is to have your marinade in one bowl and another separate bowl. Dip each piece of meat into the marinade, coat well, and then place that into the other bowl. It is tempting to simply pour the marinade over all the meat and let it be done with it, but you will lose out in getting a really great even marinade. In this regard, bulgoki may be a bit more time consuming to dip individual pieces of meat in the marinade, but it is well worth the effort.



The other trick, particularly with kalbi, is to rinse each piece of kalbi to clean off bone fragments and whatnot that gets in there from the slicing of the meat.

If you're going to do flank steak, I like to just put cleaned whole green onions, interspersed with the marinated flank, to provide additional flavor during marination. You can also try putting big chunks of white onion if you like.

I like an overnight marinade, so I portion off what I'm going to freeze and put them in ziplog freezer bags, double bagged, and then put the rest in a sealed container and wait for the next day. Serve with rice, kimchee, ssam, sssamjang, cucumbers, carrots and enjoy!

Happy BBQ everyone!

Menu #1 - Stuffed chicken thighs with Red Bell Pepper Sauce

I did some experimenting last week - in my long search for more dairy free, soy free recipes to amuse my palate. I came upon this one - which was very very delicious. it's not hard, although the whole stuffing the olive paste inside the chicken may seem finicky - the flavors were YUM and my kids just loved it. The bell pepper tomato sauce was really enhanced by the olives as well - and it was a delicious dinner. Sung's only complaint was there wasn't enough sauce (always his complaint) so bear that in mind.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/michael-chiarello/stuffed-chicken-thighs-with-red-pepper-tomato-sauce-recipe/index.html

Menu #2 - Sake Chicken with Spinach Deunjahng gook, rice and kimchee.

I've had a few phone calls with people calling me about the sake chicken - for those who haven't had it - super easy, super delicious and super quick to make....and usually a hit.

Sake Chicken

1/2 c soy sauce
1/2 c sake
2 T sesame oil
for a slightly spicy kick - optional - Add Sambal Oelek 1/4 c- which is the chinese ground chilis - very yummy...
1.5 lbs wings and drummetes

Mix soy,sake, sesame oil (and sambal if so desired) Pour over chicken. Put in fridge - marinate at least two hours - but it's better over night.

Preheat oven 350. Place chicken in a single layer on a sheet pan and put in the preheated oven. Cook for 45 minutes and then the last 10 minutes (watch carefully) raise heat to 400 to crisp and caramelize.

Enjoy!

Spinach Deunjahng gook
Sorry to say - but the cornerstone of this one will also be gohleeg gook. IF you HAVE the frozen gohlee gook - see how many places it gets used! AWESOME STUFF!
Spinach - washed carefully and cut in half (basically leaves and stems separate)
1 jalapeno (if you like it spicy)
garlic (to your taste)
deunjahng
Gook Gahnjahng (soup soy sauce - if you dont' have it, substitute salt)

Place your gohlee broth in a pot. Bring to a boil. Add washed spinach, jalapeno and garlic. Now for a more refined deunjahng gook - you need a hand strainer. (in case I'm not clearly explaining it, a picture of a strainer is here



You basically put the strainer in the water and put the deunjahng in the strainer and mix with your spoon. This way all the clumps in deunjahng don't actually make it into your soup, but rather you only let the flavor into your soup. In the end, your strainer should only have the soy skins and the lumpy stuff there, and your soup will be smooth with no random clumps in it. (my husband hates those clumps on the bottom of his bowl.)

Menu #3 - Grilled Chicken and Mediterranean Couscous Salad

I just get skinless boness chicken breasts, salt and pepper on both sides and fry them up in a skillet with olive oil. Then I chop it up and serve it with this couscous salad which is REALLY yummy and refreshing. The salad would probably also go great with lamb chops.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/mediterranean-salad-recipe/index.html

Giada uses Israeli Couscous (available and most trader joes and whole foods) but I used regular couscous (only because that is what I had.) Flavors are very nice and lemony and refreshing...enjoy!

Menu #4 - Pack it In Udon - you can use your choice of protein and KIMCHEE

at your local Chinese or Japanese market, you can find the following soup base: Kikkoman Hon Tsuyu.
http://www.asianfoodgrocer.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=4373

the above is just a picture of what it is.

Now - it does have MSG in it, but the soup base itself is so good that I dilute it and feel pretty decently about giving it to my kids. Make soup base, bring it to a boil. Add your choice of bok choy, carrots, enoki mushrooms, regular mushrooms, tempura (odeng), scallions. Usuallly I do three kinds of odeng which have been sliced into small pieces, a lot of bok choy, enoki mushrooms and scallions but you can add whatever.

In a SEPARATE pot, boil your udon noodles - and when fully cooked, drain. Place your noodles in their individual bowls and THEN pour the broth and mix of veggies on top. DO NOT be tempted to boil noodles in the same pot as your broth - it will make yuckiness...the broth isn't clear, noodles get sticky - all big mess...

Enjoy! Hope you all have a great week - let me know what works and what doesn't!

A Week of Menus - Kalbi Ggim Mini Lesson

Hi all - hope all is well and the cool weather inspires you to make some soups and lovely warm dishes... I'm freezing right now, so all that sounds good to me is warm korean food - except that I can't eat MUCH OF IT! (I'm soy and dairy free.) I got some feedback from Jenny who enjoyed the salmon agrodolce and expressed frustartion that my nameul explanation was too confusing...I'm going to look for an online demonstration (or perhaps just film and make my own) so that you can watch it - I think the writing was too dense - but it's got a lot of detail to help with the technique. Was anyone brave enough to try? Was it any good or am I holding my breath?

I think Kalbiggim is a great thing to make when IT IS NOT HOT! Those of you suffering in LA, this is probably not a great recipe for you, but for us, up here, it's still cool enough to enjoy a braised beef short rib, which is essentially what kalbi ggim is.

Kalbi Ggim Mini Lesson
Up north, I think the best short ribs are available at Safeway. The problem is that they are too long - and so you need to have the butcher cut the bones in half - so you have about a 2 inch long chunk where you once had a 4 inch chunk. (basically cutting the rib in half.) This makes for FAR better braising. So I get my 2 packs of 4 (8 ribs total), take it to the butcher and ask him to cut them in half which happily he does. Then I have 16 smaller pieces.

Preparation
The preparation of the beef is the most important. First - drain the blood by soaking it in cold water. Dump all your beef, bones and all into a large pot and cover with plenty of cold water. Let the beef drain the blood for about 45 minutes or an hour. After soaking, slice into the beef across the grain - essentially breaking the top of the meat, the chunkiest part into smaller pieces still attached to the bone. This allows for maximum soakage of the marinade and the sauce and maximizes tendering of the beef.

Cooking 1st round
Now - put all the sliced, soaked meat into a pot and cover with clean water. Bring the beef and the water to a boil and then reduce heat to a simmer - allow to simmer for 45 minutes. The boiling liquid will be brown, foamy and ugly. After drain all the beef and WASH OFF all of the foam and dirty bits. Rinse well under cool water until you have "clean" pieces of cooked beef.

Cooking 2nd round
In a clean pot (or the pot you used before but make sure it's clean) add the following
1 cup sugar
1 cup soy
1 cup water
1/2 cup sesame oil
1/2 cup sake
6 cloves of garlic, finely processed
Add all of your beef.
Cook over medium low heat - turning constantly and allowing different pieces of the beef to soak and cook in the liquid. cook for 40 minutes or until the beef is tender and then add 1 diced onion, 2 carrots chopped into big chunks and one potato, peeled and cut into large chunks. Continue cooking until the vegetables are fully cooked.

Serve with rice. YEAH! Kalbi Ggim!

Any suggestions for other mini lessons? I'm not a master korean chef by any stretch, but if there is something basic you want to learn, please ask. I will try and accommodate or find someone who can teach it.

Menu #1-Kalbi Ggim, Salad, Cucumbers and Rice - kimchee optional. (or mandatory if you're in my house.)
Kalbi ggim recipe above.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/CHINESE-CHICKEN-SALAD-234995

I just use romaine (from Costco) and leave out most of the other vegetables, but you can add them. YUMMY!
This salad goes REALLY well with the kalbi ggim - you can leave out the cilantro if you're a hater, but those of you from the north of Korea (like me - red commie that I am) will be familiar with its use in Korean cooking - "goh soo" it's called in Korean and it's YUM!

Pickling Cucumbers cut into sticks for dipping into sahmjang or plain gotchoo jahng for some spicy kick.

Menu #2 -Pasta with Artichokes, sundried tomatoes, sausages
I got this recipe through Jenny who made it at a shower. It is SUPER yummy and also super easy which makes it a great dinner in a flash. I left out the mozzarella (I would LOVE it but I'm dairy free) and the parmesean cheese and it was STILL delicious. I was also in a pinch to get the girls to eat some greens, so I just took some baby spinach, chopped it up and tossed it on top so it would wilt and mix in and they loved it - gobbled it all up. In FACT - such a hit with my girls that they asked for it three times last week (luckily there were leftovers so I was able to just simply reheat and serve...again throwing on the chopped spinach for a complete meal.)

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/fusilli-with-sausage-artichokes-and-sun-dried-tomatoes-recipe/index.html

Menu #3 - Kongnameul Bap and Gook (goh lee gohmtanhng that you've defrosted from the freezer.)

Wash and clean your rice. put it in the rice pot. Add ground beef - I like about 1 lb for about 3 cups of uncooked rice. Mix the beef in (this is my peculiarity - some people just leave that floating on top but I like it all mixed in and cooked together.) Add a nice chunk of kongnameul on top and just cook as you normally would. Serve with yangyum ganjang - soy sauce, sesame oil, scallions, red chili powder (if you like spicy) sesame seeds.

Menu #4 - BBQ ribs, Salad, Bread with butter

New Rib recipe - my girls LOVED IT and in fact wouldn't leave the table because they wanted more...

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/the-ultimate-barbecued-ribs-recipe/index.html

the ribs is not your standard 1 hour from start to finish - it does require some slow cooking...but the sauce, which is homemade was so good and easy I thought it was a worthwhile recipe to put out there.

Happy Cooking all!

Week Of Menus - Salmon, Chicken, Mixed Side Dishes

I had an interesting conversation with a woman who confesses to me she can't cook. She is a teacher, not working right now, so keen to try some cooking beyond the simple heat up a lean cuisine or dump a can of soup in a pot that she normally does when she's teaching. For her, the supermarket it too big, too crazy, too daunting and just too many ingredients (I know some of you feel this way) so she does a high percentage of her shopping at Trader Joes. In a fit of inspiration last night, she went to google and typed in "trader joes recipes" and VOILA - got a web page with a listing of recipes that only use Trader Joe's foods. On top of that, there seems to be a book that has also been published which the San Mateo County Library system has evidently ordered 8 copies. I've put the link to the website here - this isn't exactly my style of cooking, BUT it did look like it would be good in a pinch, or if I'm only going to Trader Joes for groceries. I thought some of you might find the concept interesting, if not super duper helpful on those hectic evenings when you don't even want to cook.

http://www.traderjoesfan.com/Trader_Joes/Recipes/

Menu #1 - Salmon, Pasta, Fresh baby Spinach.

I saw this recipe on the food network site and was immediately attracted to it. I liked the idea of the salmon, the pasta with the capers sounded just yummy and to have the spinach just built right into the recipe seemed ideal...except, my family is SAUCE CRAZY...and this has no sauce - no real "saucy sauce" on the spaghetti, or on the salmon...so I decided to make the agrodolce sauce we've had from a few weeks before and just make the sauce to pour on top of the salmon - HUGE hit with the family...so I highly recommend it. It's remarkably easy, but super delicious when made. I didn't use the whole wheat spaghetti - more because my daughter bella would have noodles coming out of her nose and I didn't think I could deal with it so opted for a simpler to clean up penne.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/whole-wheat-spaghetti-with-lemon-basil-and-salmon-recipe/index.html

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/SALMON-WITH-AGRODOLCE-SAUCE-241986

I don't even bother finishing the sauce with butter...

Menu #2 - Chicken, potato salad, and steamed green beans

The chicken portion of this - is a rotisserie chicken from either safeway or costco. (I actually think Costco tastes better - and it's bigger which means you can have leftovers for chicken salad.)

Potato Salad - you can find any recipe for this - there are a million, but personally I like mine to have egg, celery, shallots and peas...so I made up my own. Unfortunately no proportions - just my own technique.

2 lbs New red potatoes
Bag of frozen peas
2 shallots chopped fine (can also use red onion if you prefer)
4 hard boiled eggs
1 rib of celery chopped fine
red wine vinegar
salt
pepper
olive oil
vinegar
Mayonnaise

Wash potatoes. In a pot filled with cold salted water, add the potatoes and cook until they are tender.
Boil the eggs - to hard boil.

Once the potatoes are cooked, drain the water, and quickly cut them into quarters or smaller, depending on the size of your potato and toss into a bowl. WHILE HOT, dress the potatoes with salt, pepper, vinegar and olive oil. This is KEY - WHILE THEY ARE HOT so the potatoes soak up the vinegary goodness...taste - if it tastes good, you're fine.
Add the chopped veggies and mayonnaise. Mix to combine. Add eggs and combine them.

Steamed green beans - Costco has this bag that are already trimmed and placed in a neat little line - they are AWESOME. I just wash them and steam them in the microwave.

Menu #3 - Dduk mandoo Gook, kimchee, and cucumbers dipped in samjahng.

The chinese markets these days seem to have dduk now - which is great...mandoo - I have homemade ones, but the ones from the korean market - are also very good - just get a brand that seems to be a bit more expensive - luckily most of them are made in the US - so you don't have to worry about the scandal that was in korea where they discovered that the mandoos were being made with rotting vegetables and rancid meat...dduk, egg, and scallion.

Cucumbers (now that it is summer) dipped in sahmjahng is the height of a lovely summery meal - and I like the pungency against the more milder blander gook.

Menu #4 Gook, Bap, Your choice of protein and a banchan below

This one is not really a menu -but if you have gook and bap (see last week and the prior week's mini lessons) and your choice of protein - be it chicken, beef of fish, the side dishes for korean food can be a pain, but there are a few easy ones...

Silken (soft) tofu - cut into smaller cubes, and then finely chop scallions on top. pour over equal amounts of soy and sesame oil. A lovely simple banchan.

Steamed broccoli - and then drizzle on top sesame oil and soy sauce - sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Cucumbers, mild peppers (red bell peppers are nice) carrots, sliced - served with a side of sahmjahng

pickling or japanese cucumbers - sliced thinly and tossed with vinegar, a bit of sugar and sesame oil

Happy cooking everyone! Haven't gotten much feedback on what people are cooking...

A Week of Menus - Gohlee Gook Mini Lesson

I got one round of feedback, who informed me that the soup stock lesson was good, and she loved the steak which was a hit (and super easy too.) So that got me motivated to write another menu this week - I was going to let it slide, but the feedback always get me going again...

Gohlee Gook Mini Lesson
gohlee gook..is a GREAT base for dduk gook and shigumchee (spinach) deunjahng gook. If you use the gohlee gook as the base, you have a far more rich flavorful soup for either the dukkgook or the shigumchee gook - and it stands very well on it's own of course. for those with kids, it is a VERY good source of calcium IF you boil it to the point of cloudiness and opaqueness...this means the calcium and gelatin from the bone and cartilage itself has melted into the broth - good nutrition here. This recipe requires time more than anything else and a patient hand....so here we go.

Get yourself a pack of gohlee (oxtail)- I find the chinese supermarket always has a nice selection. My tendency is to go for lots of medium sized pieces vs. huge chunky pieces. For those who are tempted to go to Costco and get their oxtail there -DO NOT. It sucks...

Okay - soak the gohlee in cold water...drain the blood as we did for your beef in beef stock. A good 45 minutes is what it can take but sometimes I soak it and forget it and get to it an hour later. still fine.
Now - put the drained and rinsed gohlee in pot and put JUST enough water to cover all the gohlee. Then put it on the stove and get it to a good rolling boil - and let it boil for about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and DUMP IT ALL OUT....save the gohlee of course, but dump out all that liquid. It will be brownish, foamy and blech. Get rid of it, rinse your pot and rinse the gohlee and put it back in your pot. Now fill the pot with fresh water, add 7 cloves of garlic and a peeled onion. Now begins the easy part - get it to a boil and maintain a simmer. Now - this is the part that takes a while - you keep boiling and boiling and boiling - I like mine to get about a good 6 hours on the stove - and then I get a lovely pale milky yellowish broth...your liquid will evaporate and reduce - so what do you do? you add BOILING WATER....I just get my teapot, fill it with water and get it to a boil and add it in. NEVER NEVER NEVER add cold water - because you're basically starting from scratch and my cooking ancestors tell me that for some reason, you do NOT do this. If you get about to the 3 hour mark, you'll need to add hot water.

oh - and a trick - you can usually get MORE broth than you think you can from a good set of oxtails. AFter you get some milk broth, get a container that you intend to freeze in and scoop out the broth. Cool and set aside ready to freeze. Add MORE boiling water to your pot and bring to a boil and get more liquid out. You can usually get two or three rounds this way...

after a good 6-7 hours, you should have a super rich milk broth - happy boiling!

Menu #1 - Rotisserie chicken (costco), bagged salad mix (costco) and Balsamic Couscous...
Rotisserie chicken from Costco is very very good in a pinch (and it's cheaper than making your own roast chicken in most cases) and the bagged Parisian Salad Mix I mentioned in my other menu is also a good accompaniment. This couscous recipe is super easy but SUPER good...

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/TOMATO-BASIL-AND-COUSCOUS-SALAD-607

Menu #2 - Salmon Agrodolce, Steamed Broccoli with butter and salt, and Apricot Green Onion Cous Cous.

our super easy salmon recipe - from prior weeks - Sung calls the balsamic reduction "liquid gold" and at one point, I saw him lift the fry pan and try to lick the rest of the sauce off before I screamed in horror...very tasty as many of you know from trying.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/SALMON-WITH-AGRODOLCE-SAUCE-241986

Steamed broccoli - how many of you are microwave steamers? I am a huge one - love it. I wash my broccoli crowns, cut up the florets in smaller pieces, stick it in a dish with a tiny bit of water on the bottom, cover it tightly with saran wrap and steam it in the microwave - my microwave is super strong so it's done in 2 minutes, but most people usually take 3. Take it out, CAREFULLY uncover (that steam will get you) and then just add some butter and salt on top.

Apricot Couscous - this is sort of my own psycho invention after looking at about 20 recipes and not finding one that I EXACTLY wanted to do.

1 Box of Couscous
8 - 10 dried apricots, chopped into small pieces
1 bunch of green onions sliced
olive oil
cinnamon (optional - if you like the morrocanish flavorings add)
salt
Pepper =

I prepare my couscous in a bowl - I dump in the cous cous, apricots, salt and boiling water according to the proportions on the box. Cover and let it sit for about 5 minutes. Uncover and then fluff with a fork. Then I add the choped green onions, cinnamon and olive oil to taste. (sorry - no proportions - just my own haphazzard guessing.) very yummy with the salmon.

Menu #3 Kalbi ggim and Korean Spinach Nameul and soup (gohlee gook would be nice here.)
This is what our family is eating tomorrow - but I don't know if people consider kalbi ggim an easy enough dish. It is a bit time consuming but the technique itself is not that difficult...if people are interested in a mini lesson in this, I will be happy to write it down for next week. Please just let me know if you want the mini lesson. I also think spinach nameul is easy and yummy - although it does take 4 dishes to prepare - one to wash dirty dirty spinach, one to cook, one to mix and one to serve...what a pain. Let me know if people want nameul lesson as well.

Menu #4 Sausage and Chicken kebabs - salad

I made this recipe and was super excited about it. The actual finished product was not as spectacular as I would have hoped (having sung in the background trying to knock out pieces of charred baguette from our daughters' mouths with the cry that it would give them cancer was not appealing either.) The recipe asks that you skewer sausage, chicken breasts and baguette slices onto skewers and then grill them. Unfortunately for us, the baguettes burned far to quickly and the sausage and chicken took longer to cook. So we had burnt toast. I think the combination, however was really delicious - I would just grlll the bread separately on the grill similar to crostini and drizzle them with olive oil and sprinkle with salt when they are done.

The recipe also calls for a Caesar salad - I used the Costco Parisian Salad mix (if you can't tell we use this a lot in a pinch) and it was equally delicious. I do think with the Caesar, however, it would be fantastic but since I'm restricted on dairy, I don't dare indulge.

Recipe is here - modify as you see fit - but do toast your baguette slices separately.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_37142,00.html

Happy cooking all!