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| My version of Dan Dan Mein, using (gasp) spaghetti noodles - Photo by Wasabi Prime |
Showing posts with label macgyver cooking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label macgyver cooking. Show all posts
Monday, February 9, 2015
UnRecipe: What Up Shorty - Asian Cooking Shortcuts
Cutting corners on making traditional Asian cuisine?!!! All the Tiger Moms out there want to beat me with a bamboo cane for daring to suggest such a thing. They already lament my not being a doctor, or marrying a doctor, or not having six overachieving children who are on their way to becoming a doctor. Hell, I don't even hold chopsticks right. But whatever, my Wasabi Mom doesn't care, she loves her little underachiever no matter what. If anything, Mom would appreciate this post, because it's not about specific recipes, more about ways to make-do and cook with what you have, Asian-style.
Monday, January 5, 2015
UnRecipe: Cook Whatcha Got
A new year often prompts a bit of reflection. I'll keep my reflective thoughts specific to this blog, but I realized how much my personal cooking behavior has changed since starting the blog many years ago (2008/2009 - whew, that's a lot of posts). The nice thing about cooking is that repetition pretty much guarantees improvement. When you prepare meals 2-3 times a week, there's no pressure to make everything super-duper gourmet, you learn as you go, it's a constantly evolving process where it's not the meals that are the project, it's yourself. Cooking becomes less about the meal and more about methods of preparation, use of ingredients, and time management -- or at least, that's what I've gotten out of blogging and cooking regularly for the last several years. So this is my post -- I'm sharing some midweek meals over the last year that weren't necessarily conceived as blog projects, but I liked the look of them, and I feel like altogether, they represent what this blog has become.
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| You see: spice-rubbed pork with veggies over polenta / I see: clean out the fridge - Photo by Wasabi Prime |
Monday, July 18, 2011
Mixed Plate: CSA, Where the "C" is for "Creative"
If you ever wanted to feel like an Iron Chef in your own home, sign up for a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). This is a growing trend in communities that have access to a large network of independent farmers and it's a win-win situation -- as a small grower, the crops are earmarked for purchase, helping to guarantee a steady business; as a subscriber to a CSA, you get whatever's fresh and in-season, supporting local businesses and the goods are likely organic. It also means as the preparer of the household meals, you become a wily home cook, required to think on your feet over how to prepare that box full of mystery that appears on your door every week. As Chairman Kaga would shout: Allez Cuisine!!
We did a CSA a couple of years ago with a smaller local farm out in Carnation and I'll be honest, it was a challenge. Weather dictates what you get, and if it's cold and wet, you have your lion's share of dark leafy greens, and sometimes, we'd just get some crazy-mofo-stuff that I had no idea what to do with. This isn't a bad thing, you just learn to be resourceful, which just means some nights you make green meatloaf, with buzzed-down greens mixed with ground meat. It doesn't mean you gave up, it means you needed to clear out the crisper because the next box was due to arrive the next day.
This year, my birthday present from Mr. Wasabi was a subscription to a CSA from Full Circle Farms. Lest you think this is the bowling ball with "Homer" engraved on it ("Simpsons" anyone?), this is a nice time-saver for me in that I can skip an extra trip to the grocery store that week or if I have enough on-hand materials, I don't have to grocery shop at all for a week, and it removes some of that nebulous, "what the hell am I cooking?" pondering for the week. Granted, Full Circle Farms is not some small mom n' pop farm co-op; they're freakin' huge. You've probably bought some of their stuff at large chain grocery stores before, just under a label like Earthbound Farm Organic. This doesn't mean Full Circle is some big, bad corporate machine; quite the contrary -- they're probably one of the friendliest ways to introduce yourself into the CSA habit because thanks to their large size, you can sign up at any time (many smaller CSAs have limited signup times/slots) and you can designate what you get in your delivery box, as well as the frequency of the deliveries.
Right now we're on the every other week delivery schedule of a box full of mystery. I could specify what I want, but I'm letting Providence guide my cooking habits, plus I just don't want to hassle with it -- I trust what Mother Nature thinks we should be eating right now. We have that to a certain degree at grocery stores in that they'll offer the in-season items at a good price, but then they also offer blueberries from Argentina in the middle of February, so sometimes it's better to let the Fates plan your meal.
So far, we've been blessed with lots of leafy greens and vegetables, but more fruit is appearing in the boxes. Stone fruit like peaches, nectarines and pluots are showing up in the CSA Box of Mystery. We even had a little glass jar of fennel salt show up as a little "thanks" from Full Circle. By having a crisper drawer full of vegetables, it makes it easier to make salads, and for other cooked dishes, you feel more inclined to bump up the veggie quotient. If I had a nutritionist, I'm sure they would say they're pleased we're getting our daily intake of roughage.
When I'm cooking with CSA deliveries in mind, I do tend to stick to ingredient-swappable dishes like soups, stews and stir-frys. Another easy thing to add extra vegetables in, or just make totally vegetarian is enchiladas. I make a lazy-man's version that's more like an enchilada lasagna, where I spread the filling between layers of corn tortillas and cover with a spicy tomato sauce and cheese. At that point, you can literally chop up anything and add to the mix, so it's a good crisper drawer-cleaner. I certainly don't claim to make super-fancy things when I'm in CSA-Iron Chef mode; I'm strapped for time some weeks and need to make items that are high-yield for lunch and dinner leftovers. And sometimes it's just a good challenge to make yourself work with what you have, create the flavors and textures you're looking for with the items on-hand. I'm always more fond of being resourceful than making something complicated, and with a box full of fresh, organic eats, it makes it that much more encouraging to be creative.
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| When CSA boxes bring you strawberries... make ice cream - Photo by Wasabi Prime |
We did a CSA a couple of years ago with a smaller local farm out in Carnation and I'll be honest, it was a challenge. Weather dictates what you get, and if it's cold and wet, you have your lion's share of dark leafy greens, and sometimes, we'd just get some crazy-mofo-stuff that I had no idea what to do with. This isn't a bad thing, you just learn to be resourceful, which just means some nights you make green meatloaf, with buzzed-down greens mixed with ground meat. It doesn't mean you gave up, it means you needed to clear out the crisper because the next box was due to arrive the next day.
This year, my birthday present from Mr. Wasabi was a subscription to a CSA from Full Circle Farms. Lest you think this is the bowling ball with "Homer" engraved on it ("Simpsons" anyone?), this is a nice time-saver for me in that I can skip an extra trip to the grocery store that week or if I have enough on-hand materials, I don't have to grocery shop at all for a week, and it removes some of that nebulous, "what the hell am I cooking?" pondering for the week. Granted, Full Circle Farms is not some small mom n' pop farm co-op; they're freakin' huge. You've probably bought some of their stuff at large chain grocery stores before, just under a label like Earthbound Farm Organic. This doesn't mean Full Circle is some big, bad corporate machine; quite the contrary -- they're probably one of the friendliest ways to introduce yourself into the CSA habit because thanks to their large size, you can sign up at any time (many smaller CSAs have limited signup times/slots) and you can designate what you get in your delivery box, as well as the frequency of the deliveries.
 |
| Our bi-monthly Box of Mystery, from Full Circle Farms - Photos by Wasabi Prime |
Right now we're on the every other week delivery schedule of a box full of mystery. I could specify what I want, but I'm letting Providence guide my cooking habits, plus I just don't want to hassle with it -- I trust what Mother Nature thinks we should be eating right now. We have that to a certain degree at grocery stores in that they'll offer the in-season items at a good price, but then they also offer blueberries from Argentina in the middle of February, so sometimes it's better to let the Fates plan your meal.
So far, we've been blessed with lots of leafy greens and vegetables, but more fruit is appearing in the boxes. Stone fruit like peaches, nectarines and pluots are showing up in the CSA Box of Mystery. We even had a little glass jar of fennel salt show up as a little "thanks" from Full Circle. By having a crisper drawer full of vegetables, it makes it easier to make salads, and for other cooked dishes, you feel more inclined to bump up the veggie quotient. If I had a nutritionist, I'm sure they would say they're pleased we're getting our daily intake of roughage.
When I'm cooking with CSA deliveries in mind, I do tend to stick to ingredient-swappable dishes like soups, stews and stir-frys. Another easy thing to add extra vegetables in, or just make totally vegetarian is enchiladas. I make a lazy-man's version that's more like an enchilada lasagna, where I spread the filling between layers of corn tortillas and cover with a spicy tomato sauce and cheese. At that point, you can literally chop up anything and add to the mix, so it's a good crisper drawer-cleaner. I certainly don't claim to make super-fancy things when I'm in CSA-Iron Chef mode; I'm strapped for time some weeks and need to make items that are high-yield for lunch and dinner leftovers. And sometimes it's just a good challenge to make yourself work with what you have, create the flavors and textures you're looking for with the items on-hand. I'm always more fond of being resourceful than making something complicated, and with a box full of fresh, organic eats, it makes it that much more encouraging to be creative.
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| The exciting, unpredictable world of CSA Cooking - Photos by Wasabi Prime |
Monday, September 6, 2010
UnRecipe: Dinnertime Weeknight Boogie
We all have those weeks. The ones where we bury our heads in a computer or a stack of documents and after what feels like a nuclear half-life, we raise our eyes to the horizon, see that the evening dusk has fallen and realize: Holy Craptown, it's dinnertime; what am I going to cook? OK, so not everyone says that, nor do they always make most of their meals at home, but seeing as how my day is split up into half-professional/half-Suzy Homemaker, I forget to clock out from the business end of the day and segway properly into the process of preparing something to banish the day's hunger. This is not a unique problem and I'm willing to bet everyone runs into this on a daily basis, so here are some examples of fast MacGyver Meals I've had to throw together over the recent months.
During the intermittent heatwave days of summer, I definitely take advantage of the grill. I know some people grill in the dead of winter, when it's pouring outside, taking on the Post Office "Neither rain, sleet, nor snow" attitude for cooking outdoors. I should adopt this attitude, given the BA-Barracus-grill that Mr. Wasabi chose for our household, but most times, I'm lazy and don't feel like rousting the family of spiders who have inevitably taken residence around the grill, nor do I relish trying to wrestle the awkwardly large cover back onto the grill when it's time to put it away. It's not a lot of effort, I realize, but in a post-dinner food coma, even the slightest bit of chores makes me cringe. But laziness be damned, I'll fire up the grill now and then, however instead of cooking one meal at a time, I choose to load up every square inch of those cast-iron grill plates and make something that will last the week.
The easiest, minimal-prep item is, of course, the ubiquitous chicken breast. Light on taste, low on fat and somewhat boring, the grill brings out flavors from the lowly chicken breast unseen in most cooking methods. A bit of salt, pepper, a light toss in oil, and the char of the direct flame helps produce some much needed flavor out of the paltry poultry. Plus it's the only way I've been able to really keep the meat juicy, since the quick and intense heat locks in both flavor and moisture. The rest of the grill is taken up by vegetables like zucchini sliced lengthwise, seasoned similarly, and this simple supply of meat and vegetables carries us through several meals, from eating it as-is or sliced up and tossed in salads.
Another last-minute prep meal is anything that doesn't require a lot of messy prep. Who loves doing dishes? I don't see many hands going up. A recent night of frantic meal prep found the Prime throwing open the refrigerator and having an Iron Chef moment. Except that it wasn't so much what Chairman Kaga presented, it was more like, this is what's sitting on the shelves. Without the flourish of a man dressed like Liberace or even a dramatic unveil, I had before me: several defrosted chicken breasts, leftover slices of prosciutto, sweet potatoes, the last bits of pesto, and plain yogurt. Sounds unappetizing at first, but I made a saltimbocca-inspired dinner, using seasoned, lightly seared chicken breasts wrapped in prosciutto, layered with some fresh sage plucked from the garden, laid upon a bed of oven-baked diced sweet potatoes, with a sauce of pesto and yogurt, watered down with a little milk. Sounds a bit crazy, I know, but it turned out fine. The fatty cured pork kept the chicken moist as the oven did its work, cooking the chicken all the way through. Juices from the cooking meat mixed with the yogurt sauce and helped further flavor and cook the bed of sweet potatoes which had a head-start, roasting in the oven while I seared the chicken breasts in a pan.
My third MacGyver/Pan-to-Oven quick dinner is with the Other White Meat, using pork tenderloin. It's a good thing to make on a cool night, especially now that we're starting to see the evenings chill down a bit more. I toss some root vegetables in oil with some salt and pepper and let them roast in the oven for a bit. Then I'll season up a pork tenderloin with whatever favorite seasonings I have on hand and sear it on all sides in a pan. I'm not looking to get it fully cooked, just get a nice crust, and then move it into the oven, sitting atop the vegetables that have already started roasting. I deglaze the pan with a bit of beer and then toss in some thinly sliced red cabbage, which is one of my favorite inexpensive go-to side dish veggies. It holds up nicely to the cooking process, just wilting but not totally falling apart, plus the color remains incredibly vibrant. If I have shallots, a bit of onion or even apples, I throw those in as well. A bit of cider vinegar and either sugar or honey to balance the sweet to sour, and the remainder of the beer helps cook everything down. Pork tenderloin, roasted vegetables, and a side of bright purple-red braised cabbage -- again, not fancy, but it can be done as a weeknight meal with plenty of leftovers for the next day's lunch and dinner.
I always talk about the magic of leftovers, and maybe it's too gauche a thing for the art of fine cuisine, but most of our meals are basic out of necessity and the lack of time. I end up spending more time figuring out ways to take shortcuts, but also not rely on a lot of processed things for those shortcuts. And yes, it results in a lot of UnRecipes where exact amounts and increments don't exist, but I think like most home cooks, we get inspired by seeing what others do, and just make up the recipes on our own while we tinker in the kitchen on our own last-minute meal prep -- wouldn't you agree?
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| The thrill of the grill - Photo by Wasabi Prime |
During the intermittent heatwave days of summer, I definitely take advantage of the grill. I know some people grill in the dead of winter, when it's pouring outside, taking on the Post Office "Neither rain, sleet, nor snow" attitude for cooking outdoors. I should adopt this attitude, given the BA-Barracus-grill that Mr. Wasabi chose for our household, but most times, I'm lazy and don't feel like rousting the family of spiders who have inevitably taken residence around the grill, nor do I relish trying to wrestle the awkwardly large cover back onto the grill when it's time to put it away. It's not a lot of effort, I realize, but in a post-dinner food coma, even the slightest bit of chores makes me cringe. But laziness be damned, I'll fire up the grill now and then, however instead of cooking one meal at a time, I choose to load up every square inch of those cast-iron grill plates and make something that will last the week.
The easiest, minimal-prep item is, of course, the ubiquitous chicken breast. Light on taste, low on fat and somewhat boring, the grill brings out flavors from the lowly chicken breast unseen in most cooking methods. A bit of salt, pepper, a light toss in oil, and the char of the direct flame helps produce some much needed flavor out of the paltry poultry. Plus it's the only way I've been able to really keep the meat juicy, since the quick and intense heat locks in both flavor and moisture. The rest of the grill is taken up by vegetables like zucchini sliced lengthwise, seasoned similarly, and this simple supply of meat and vegetables carries us through several meals, from eating it as-is or sliced up and tossed in salads.
 |
| Pseudo saltimbocca, done casserole style - Photo by Wasabi Prime |
Another last-minute prep meal is anything that doesn't require a lot of messy prep. Who loves doing dishes? I don't see many hands going up. A recent night of frantic meal prep found the Prime throwing open the refrigerator and having an Iron Chef moment. Except that it wasn't so much what Chairman Kaga presented, it was more like, this is what's sitting on the shelves. Without the flourish of a man dressed like Liberace or even a dramatic unveil, I had before me: several defrosted chicken breasts, leftover slices of prosciutto, sweet potatoes, the last bits of pesto, and plain yogurt. Sounds unappetizing at first, but I made a saltimbocca-inspired dinner, using seasoned, lightly seared chicken breasts wrapped in prosciutto, layered with some fresh sage plucked from the garden, laid upon a bed of oven-baked diced sweet potatoes, with a sauce of pesto and yogurt, watered down with a little milk. Sounds a bit crazy, I know, but it turned out fine. The fatty cured pork kept the chicken moist as the oven did its work, cooking the chicken all the way through. Juices from the cooking meat mixed with the yogurt sauce and helped further flavor and cook the bed of sweet potatoes which had a head-start, roasting in the oven while I seared the chicken breasts in a pan.
 |
| Pork tenderloin and lots of colorful veggies - Photos by Wasabi Prime |
My third MacGyver/Pan-to-Oven quick dinner is with the Other White Meat, using pork tenderloin. It's a good thing to make on a cool night, especially now that we're starting to see the evenings chill down a bit more. I toss some root vegetables in oil with some salt and pepper and let them roast in the oven for a bit. Then I'll season up a pork tenderloin with whatever favorite seasonings I have on hand and sear it on all sides in a pan. I'm not looking to get it fully cooked, just get a nice crust, and then move it into the oven, sitting atop the vegetables that have already started roasting. I deglaze the pan with a bit of beer and then toss in some thinly sliced red cabbage, which is one of my favorite inexpensive go-to side dish veggies. It holds up nicely to the cooking process, just wilting but not totally falling apart, plus the color remains incredibly vibrant. If I have shallots, a bit of onion or even apples, I throw those in as well. A bit of cider vinegar and either sugar or honey to balance the sweet to sour, and the remainder of the beer helps cook everything down. Pork tenderloin, roasted vegetables, and a side of bright purple-red braised cabbage -- again, not fancy, but it can be done as a weeknight meal with plenty of leftovers for the next day's lunch and dinner.
I always talk about the magic of leftovers, and maybe it's too gauche a thing for the art of fine cuisine, but most of our meals are basic out of necessity and the lack of time. I end up spending more time figuring out ways to take shortcuts, but also not rely on a lot of processed things for those shortcuts. And yes, it results in a lot of UnRecipes where exact amounts and increments don't exist, but I think like most home cooks, we get inspired by seeing what others do, and just make up the recipes on our own while we tinker in the kitchen on our own last-minute meal prep -- wouldn't you agree?
Monday, January 11, 2010
Happy First Birthday, Wasabi Prime!
Awwww, you baked a meat-filled pastry just for lil' ol' MEEEEEEE? You shouldn't have. Well...actually, I'm sorta glad you did. Was feeling a bit peckish on New Year's Day.... So said the Wasabi Prime blog, if it somehow gained a Skynet-like sense of self-awareness and checked the "no" box for sending out hordes of Terminator robots to oppress the masses. *looking around carefully* Well, I see neither Robert Patrick nor the Governator, so I think we're safe. Let the celebration for the first anniversary of the Wasabi Prime blog begin!
I had almost forgotten the blog's first birthday! Does Hallmark make cards for that?! 'Twas the Kismet of pantry cooking that reminded me I had started Wasabi Prime a year ago, in January 2009, writing a post about my first attempt at making an epic loaf of Beef Wellington. Originally starting out on Vox because of their easy templates, I was the poster child of blog-unsavviness. I had read a wise post on Twitter that the definition of humble pie is to read the first few posts you've ever written -- so true! Three hundred and sixty five (and change) days later, I've made leaps and bounds to be only marginally less-unsavvy. I'm the last person in the world to say that this blog is anything more than hastily scribbled ponderings over stuff I jam into my gaping maw. But I will admit that writing this blog has cast a level of accountability over what we prepare and eat in our home. It has influenced our choices and kept us from falling too far into the easy path of take-out or drive-thru -- not that we don't enjoy it, we just view it more as a treat than a regular option. Ultimately, the food has to come from somewhere; if I'm craving a hamburger, would I derive any less pleasure by making it at home and having more control over ingredients and how it's flavored? Sure, it's more effort, but it will be custom-made deliciousness and I can continue to annoy Mr. Wasabi by shouting, "wait, I need to take a picture!" before we take a bite out of anything. That's true love, baby.
Beef Wellington doesn't exactly sound like a typical meal to make from a rummage through the pantry and fridge, but given the supply of luxe leftovers we've had through the holidays, the dish seemed like a perfect MacGyver-Meal fit for New Year's Day. We had leftover herbed goat cheese and a few scoops of mascarpone from Christmas, a lone slab of puff pastry from a baked brie and I defrosted some frozen steaks and chopped spinach in our freezer. I had gotten the idea of layering spinach and cheese from the Celebrated Chefs cookbook, more specifically Maxililien's Chef Christian Potvin's Wild Salmon Coulibiac recipe, which used wild salmon fillets baked in pockets of puff pastry, spinach and goat cheese. I could have picked up fresh salmon easily enough but I realized we have ample-stocked freezers, and it's not like we're saving steaks for a rainy day. That would be weird.
The steaks were trimmed of extra fat, cut into quarters and seared with some salt and pepper, but left extra rare, knowing the steaks would finish cooking in the oven. I didn't want us to suffer through protein hockey pucks for dinner, so the more raw the center was, the better. The pan was deglazed and the spinach was given a light toss with some shallots. Making the assembly line of meat, spinach, cheese, and pieces of plastic wrap, each little bundle was layered and wrapped so that they could sit in the refrigerator to firm up before being wrapped in the pastry dough. Compared to a more traditional Beef Wellington that uses a whole beef tenderloin, I prefer making the little Wellies. You don't get the same visual satisfaction of served slices showing off the internal layering, but the shortened cook time of smaller food parcels and individual serving sizes are nice. For plating, I let the mini-Wellies rest and still cut them into slices prior to serving, so the inside layers can be seen.
For the sauce, I used some quartered button mushrooms sauteed in butter, a leftover merlot from Christmas, the spinach filling that didn't get used in the Wellies, and a special leftover ingredient: vanilla balsamic-soaked figs. These tart little gems were strained out of a fig and vanilla balsamic vinegar that I made for Mr. Wasabi for Christmas. I reserved the figs and knew they would serve us well at some point, and they made for a nice tartness with the mushroom and wine sauce. I added a little sugar to balance out the acidity and it went nicely with the Wellies.
It was a bit of a thrown-together meal, picking and choosing ideas from recipes, and it's the kind of cooking I enjoy best. I'll follow a recipe to understand a technique or comfort with a particular ingredient, but then it's a fly-by-the-seat-of-one's-pants kitchen experience, converting the experiences gleaned from recipes into tools for future cooking adventures. I'd like to believe that's the whole point behind cooking, building a knowledge base, one dish at a time, whether a person does it as a profession or a hobby. That's the nice thing about food -- it's not exclusive, nor does it need to be financially restrictive, and it's a collective experience that we indulge in every day.
Since it was New Year's Day, plus an anniversary of sorts, we made sure to have dessert. I followed through with my resolution to make something with rice flour, settling on my mother's mochiko custard recipe, noted in the last post of 2009. Sorry there wasn't a candle in it, nor were there any birthday songs sung. Not even a funny hat! But I'm sure the blog didn't mind. It's still just a baby, after only a year of learning new things, and I hope to have many more posts to come. Here's to another year of Wasabi Prime!
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| Wellie Wellie Bo-Belly, Banana-nana-fo-felly, Be-bai-bo-bel-ly - WELLIE! Photo by Wasabi Prime |
I had almost forgotten the blog's first birthday! Does Hallmark make cards for that?! 'Twas the Kismet of pantry cooking that reminded me I had started Wasabi Prime a year ago, in January 2009, writing a post about my first attempt at making an epic loaf of Beef Wellington. Originally starting out on Vox because of their easy templates, I was the poster child of blog-unsavviness. I had read a wise post on Twitter that the definition of humble pie is to read the first few posts you've ever written -- so true! Three hundred and sixty five (and change) days later, I've made leaps and bounds to be only marginally less-unsavvy. I'm the last person in the world to say that this blog is anything more than hastily scribbled ponderings over stuff I jam into my gaping maw. But I will admit that writing this blog has cast a level of accountability over what we prepare and eat in our home. It has influenced our choices and kept us from falling too far into the easy path of take-out or drive-thru -- not that we don't enjoy it, we just view it more as a treat than a regular option. Ultimately, the food has to come from somewhere; if I'm craving a hamburger, would I derive any less pleasure by making it at home and having more control over ingredients and how it's flavored? Sure, it's more effort, but it will be custom-made deliciousness and I can continue to annoy Mr. Wasabi by shouting, "wait, I need to take a picture!" before we take a bite out of anything. That's true love, baby.
 |
| Meaty cheesy veggie deliciousness - Photos by Wasabi Prime |
Beef Wellington doesn't exactly sound like a typical meal to make from a rummage through the pantry and fridge, but given the supply of luxe leftovers we've had through the holidays, the dish seemed like a perfect MacGyver-Meal fit for New Year's Day. We had leftover herbed goat cheese and a few scoops of mascarpone from Christmas, a lone slab of puff pastry from a baked brie and I defrosted some frozen steaks and chopped spinach in our freezer. I had gotten the idea of layering spinach and cheese from the Celebrated Chefs cookbook, more specifically Maxililien's Chef Christian Potvin's Wild Salmon Coulibiac recipe, which used wild salmon fillets baked in pockets of puff pastry, spinach and goat cheese. I could have picked up fresh salmon easily enough but I realized we have ample-stocked freezers, and it's not like we're saving steaks for a rainy day. That would be weird.
The steaks were trimmed of extra fat, cut into quarters and seared with some salt and pepper, but left extra rare, knowing the steaks would finish cooking in the oven. I didn't want us to suffer through protein hockey pucks for dinner, so the more raw the center was, the better. The pan was deglazed and the spinach was given a light toss with some shallots. Making the assembly line of meat, spinach, cheese, and pieces of plastic wrap, each little bundle was layered and wrapped so that they could sit in the refrigerator to firm up before being wrapped in the pastry dough. Compared to a more traditional Beef Wellington that uses a whole beef tenderloin, I prefer making the little Wellies. You don't get the same visual satisfaction of served slices showing off the internal layering, but the shortened cook time of smaller food parcels and individual serving sizes are nice. For plating, I let the mini-Wellies rest and still cut them into slices prior to serving, so the inside layers can be seen.
 |
| I have a bun in the oven. And it's delicious. - Photos by Mr. and Ms. Wasabi |
For the sauce, I used some quartered button mushrooms sauteed in butter, a leftover merlot from Christmas, the spinach filling that didn't get used in the Wellies, and a special leftover ingredient: vanilla balsamic-soaked figs. These tart little gems were strained out of a fig and vanilla balsamic vinegar that I made for Mr. Wasabi for Christmas. I reserved the figs and knew they would serve us well at some point, and they made for a nice tartness with the mushroom and wine sauce. I added a little sugar to balance out the acidity and it went nicely with the Wellies.
It was a bit of a thrown-together meal, picking and choosing ideas from recipes, and it's the kind of cooking I enjoy best. I'll follow a recipe to understand a technique or comfort with a particular ingredient, but then it's a fly-by-the-seat-of-one's-pants kitchen experience, converting the experiences gleaned from recipes into tools for future cooking adventures. I'd like to believe that's the whole point behind cooking, building a knowledge base, one dish at a time, whether a person does it as a profession or a hobby. That's the nice thing about food -- it's not exclusive, nor does it need to be financially restrictive, and it's a collective experience that we indulge in every day.
 |
| Have a slice of birthday... custard...? - Photo by Wasabi Prime |
Since it was New Year's Day, plus an anniversary of sorts, we made sure to have dessert. I followed through with my resolution to make something with rice flour, settling on my mother's mochiko custard recipe, noted in the last post of 2009. Sorry there wasn't a candle in it, nor were there any birthday songs sung. Not even a funny hat! But I'm sure the blog didn't mind. It's still just a baby, after only a year of learning new things, and I hope to have many more posts to come. Here's to another year of Wasabi Prime!
Friday, September 25, 2009
UnRecipe: A-Team Montage Meal
In 1972, a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire... The A-Team. (courtesy Wikipedia)
*Cue awesome opening theme music, totally rad all-black van with red stripe along the side, and lots of 1980s controlled pyrotechnic explosions*
I had a refrigerator full of random leftover ingredients from various meals. Something needed to happen, lest mass spoilage take over. And I had not the awesome manpower of Hannibal, Face, B.A. Barracus, nor their uncanny ability to break out "Howling Mad" Murdoch from the psych ward for yet another weekly hour-long episode. I took matters into my own hands. By the Power of MacGyver cooking, inspired by several seasons' worth of A-Team montages where the team inexplicably built a fully loaded armored vehicle out of some bailing wire and an old beater Volvo, I set to work, creating new meals of scraps and spare parts.
There was a bit of pie dough remaining from the goat cheese and roasted plum tart. I also still had a handful of fresh Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes from blog buddy, Picket Fence, as well as chunks of leftover blue cheese. It wasn't an armored tank miraculously pieced together to raise hell on some vigilante baddies, but a rustic blue cheese and tomato tart was certainly disarming on an edible level. I flattened the spare bit of dough into a rough circle, put a thin layer of fig jam (yes, I realize I'm addicted) on the bottom, crumbled the cheese over that, and dotted the whole tomatoes over the surface. I folded the edges in, so it created a low wall, and drizzled a bit of olive oil and lemon thyme over the top before popping it into the oven to bake itself to roasted cheesy goodness. Delicious results that would convince even the ill-tempered B.A. to agree to get on a plane.
Waste not, want not, even if that includes melon-baller shaped scraps of vegetable innards that were saved from hollowing out several yellow table squash for the Meatless in Seattle post. I know, it's weird that I kept them, but there was enough to take up a big plastic yogurt container and it felt like a terrible waste to simply toss them. I was hell-bent with the conviction of Col. John "Hannibal" Smith, to use up those odd-shaped scraps. Sauteeing the squash with more refugees from the vegetarian meal like homemade pesto, and tossing with cooked penne pasta, I put the creamy mix into a baking dish, covered with leftover fresh mozzarella and parmesan cheese, and placed it under the blazing coils of the broiler to get browned and crispy. Sure, it wasn't fancy, but this impromptu baked pasta had delicious flavor of summer pesto with the rich creamy texture of melted cheese, and no remainders of the Meatless in Seattle meal went to waste.
A-Team, meet the Protein Team. A cryogenically-preserved bit of chorizo from the Way-Back Machine of stuffed pattypan squash yielded two egg-themed dishes. The leftover savory custard from the goat cheese and plum tart filled a spare ramekin, which was partially filled with the chorizo, and a mighty meaty quiche was created. The remainder of the chorizo was mixed with some defrosted mashed sweet potato. I had a little container of roasted, mashed sweet potato also in the freezer, no lie. I made pan-fried croquettes from this mixture, browning the outsides and then serving them up with a fried egg over the top. Not quite sure what kind of dish that would be, other than simply saying it was tasty and filled with comfort food delight.
At the end of several weeks' worth of meal leftovers and wayward ingredients, everything found a way to be incorporated into a new meal. As Hannibal would say during each A-Team episode, I love it when a plan comes together. Amen, to that. *Freeze frame, then let credits roll *
*Cue awesome opening theme music, totally rad all-black van with red stripe along the side, and lots of 1980s controlled pyrotechnic explosions*
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| I pity the fool who doesn't like this blue cheese and tomato tart - Photo by Wasabi Prime |
There was a bit of pie dough remaining from the goat cheese and roasted plum tart. I also still had a handful of fresh Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes from blog buddy, Picket Fence, as well as chunks of leftover blue cheese. It wasn't an armored tank miraculously pieced together to raise hell on some vigilante baddies, but a rustic blue cheese and tomato tart was certainly disarming on an edible level. I flattened the spare bit of dough into a rough circle, put a thin layer of fig jam (yes, I realize I'm addicted) on the bottom, crumbled the cheese over that, and dotted the whole tomatoes over the surface. I folded the edges in, so it created a low wall, and drizzled a bit of olive oil and lemon thyme over the top before popping it into the oven to bake itself to roasted cheesy goodness. Delicious results that would convince even the ill-tempered B.A. to agree to get on a plane.
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| The broiler hides all manner of odd-shaped vegetable scrap sins - Photo by Wasabi Prime |
Waste not, want not, even if that includes melon-baller shaped scraps of vegetable innards that were saved from hollowing out several yellow table squash for the Meatless in Seattle post. I know, it's weird that I kept them, but there was enough to take up a big plastic yogurt container and it felt like a terrible waste to simply toss them. I was hell-bent with the conviction of Col. John "Hannibal" Smith, to use up those odd-shaped scraps. Sauteeing the squash with more refugees from the vegetarian meal like homemade pesto, and tossing with cooked penne pasta, I put the creamy mix into a baking dish, covered with leftover fresh mozzarella and parmesan cheese, and placed it under the blazing coils of the broiler to get browned and crispy. Sure, it wasn't fancy, but this impromptu baked pasta had delicious flavor of summer pesto with the rich creamy texture of melted cheese, and no remainders of the Meatless in Seattle meal went to waste.
 |
| Chorizo is just another way of convincing us that pork truly is a magical animal - Photos by Wasabi Prime |
A-Team, meet the Protein Team. A cryogenically-preserved bit of chorizo from the Way-Back Machine of stuffed pattypan squash yielded two egg-themed dishes. The leftover savory custard from the goat cheese and plum tart filled a spare ramekin, which was partially filled with the chorizo, and a mighty meaty quiche was created. The remainder of the chorizo was mixed with some defrosted mashed sweet potato. I had a little container of roasted, mashed sweet potato also in the freezer, no lie. I made pan-fried croquettes from this mixture, browning the outsides and then serving them up with a fried egg over the top. Not quite sure what kind of dish that would be, other than simply saying it was tasty and filled with comfort food delight.
At the end of several weeks' worth of meal leftovers and wayward ingredients, everything found a way to be incorporated into a new meal. As Hannibal would say during each A-Team episode, I love it when a plan comes together. Amen, to that. *Freeze frame, then let credits roll *
Friday, September 18, 2009
UnRecipe: Meatless in Seattle
I often wax poetic over the versatility of pork, The Magical Animal, or marvel at The Power of Beef, usually with the haunting voiceover of Matthew McConaughey in my head. But I have several vegetarian friends, and I always feel bad that when "vegetarian options" are made available at gatherings or restaurants, it's often some limp pasta salad or an expressionless pile of steamed vegetables. It's like when Francis "Baby" Houseman gets put in a corner, and while I would never compare myself to the almighty power of The Swazye (peace-out, Patrick!), I felt the need to take those lackluster dishes from the corner and at least attempt a triumphant movie-finale lift. My attempt at an UnRecipe/MacGyver-style cooking vegetarian meal worthy of a Swazye roundhouse kick, consisted of a Roasted Corn Soup, Stuffed Table Squash, and a Caprese-inspired Pesto Portobello Mushroom Cap, with a Mango Sorbet topped with Spiced Pecans and Toasted Coconut.
Squash is a nice, no-fuss ingredient to use since it's quite hearty and its structure remains relatively sound for most cooking methods. The little yellow table squash were looking colorful and cute at the market, so I picked up a few of those. They were easily hollowed-out using a mellon baller. Hit with a drizzle of olive oil and some salt/pepper, and away they went into the oven to get a head start on roasting. For the stuffing, I pulled some small carrots and green onions from the garden (so freakin' cool to be able to do that!), chopped up a few cremini mushrooms, a small yellow onion, and sauteed this mix down to reduce the liquid. I mixed a bit of Parmesan cheese into the cooked filling and stuffed the partially roasted squash halves, letting the oven do the rest of the work. The result was a simple, mild-flavored side dish that could be paired with anything or just eaten on its own, and the filling materials could be adjusted in any way, since the squash flavor is so light and ingredient-friendly. It's the perfect neutral party for a MacGyver meal that requires minimal preparation.
The roasted corn soup was more of a rolling experiment. This was how the Swiss-precision, steel trap mostly likely run with rubber bands, known as The Wasabi Brain, went through the food thought process: 1) Flip through the September Martha Stewart Living magazine. 2) Ooh! John Derian's having a dinner party, and he's serving beautiful corn soup! 3) I need to make corn soup. 4) Ignore all recipes and directions, purchasing random ingredients from grocery store. 5) Throw random ingredients together, in a Voltron-like manner, to form-of a pot of corn soup. Ta-daaaah.
In between all that quality thinking, I roasted several cups of corn until they got slightly browned and super-sweet, and added it to a pot that already had some onions, garlic, and a little bit of carrots, sweatin' to the oldies. I added probably a quart's worth of vegetable broth and used the fabulous hand blender to combine everything from rustic chunk to rustic charm. A cup of cream made the whole thing creamy-dreamy and that's what the end-result of the corn soup experiment was. I added the fresh tomato flourish that John Derian had, and that made for an easier photo, since soups always look boring as hell in pictures.
Portabello mushrooms are another versatile ingredient to work with. I know it's touted as a meat substitute, and while it's got the moxy to stand up to being grilled, if I get a portabello burger, I'm not having it because I want faux beef, I'm eating it because I dig fungus and I appreciate its own nuanced flavor.
Jardin de Wasabi was thankfully able to yield a good amount of basil this season, so with a few snips, the plants were shorn of their precious leaves and a batch of pesto was made, using almonds instead of pine nuts because we're crazy like that. This was the genesis of the Caprese-inspired mushroom caps. I love tomatoes and cheese, but what makes them even more wonderful is when the mozzarella gets gooey and toasted from the oven. The fresh basil wouldn't have stood up to the scorch of the broiler and I really wanted the herb flavor baked into the ingredients, so I put a healthy smear of pesto over each mushroom before they got pre-roasted in the oven. Once cooked down, each cap was piled with thinly sliced tomatoes and a wedge of fresh mozzarella, and under the hot coil they went on the road to Melty Delicious-ville, final destination: My Belly. It was a good trip.
I don't always include desserts in meals, but I had been inspired by blogger Carli, of Velveeta Ain't Food fame, who had a great avocado ice cream recipe. I loved the idea of a creamy recipe that used a unique ingredient combined with savory elements like spiced nuts and sweet roasted coconut as toppers. However, our ice cream machine has a broken paddle, causing a serious harshing of my ice cream mellow, so I couldn't make avocado dessert magic. I still wanted to combine the spiced, savory nuts and sweet coconut with some kind of dessert, so I opted for a store-bought mango sorbet.
The dessert result was still delicious. I think even a vanilla ice cream would have worked fine with the spiced pecans and coconut. While I was roasting the corn for the soup, I double-booked the oven, using a second rack for the cookie sheet with the seasoned pecans and some shredded coconut. I still have a fair bit of leftover coco-pecan-nut sprinklage, so I may get a little pint of creamy vanilla and make my Friday just that much more enjoyable.
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| Nobody puts vegetarians in a corner - Photo by Wasbi Prime |
Squash is a nice, no-fuss ingredient to use since it's quite hearty and its structure remains relatively sound for most cooking methods. The little yellow table squash were looking colorful and cute at the market, so I picked up a few of those. They were easily hollowed-out using a mellon baller. Hit with a drizzle of olive oil and some salt/pepper, and away they went into the oven to get a head start on roasting. For the stuffing, I pulled some small carrots and green onions from the garden (so freakin' cool to be able to do that!), chopped up a few cremini mushrooms, a small yellow onion, and sauteed this mix down to reduce the liquid. I mixed a bit of Parmesan cheese into the cooked filling and stuffed the partially roasted squash halves, letting the oven do the rest of the work. The result was a simple, mild-flavored side dish that could be paired with anything or just eaten on its own, and the filling materials could be adjusted in any way, since the squash flavor is so light and ingredient-friendly. It's the perfect neutral party for a MacGyver meal that requires minimal preparation.
The roasted corn soup was more of a rolling experiment. This was how the Swiss-precision, steel trap mostly likely run with rubber bands, known as The Wasabi Brain, went through the food thought process: 1) Flip through the September Martha Stewart Living magazine. 2) Ooh! John Derian's having a dinner party, and he's serving beautiful corn soup! 3) I need to make corn soup. 4) Ignore all recipes and directions, purchasing random ingredients from grocery store. 5) Throw random ingredients together, in a Voltron-like manner, to form-of a pot of corn soup. Ta-daaaah.
In between all that quality thinking, I roasted several cups of corn until they got slightly browned and super-sweet, and added it to a pot that already had some onions, garlic, and a little bit of carrots, sweatin' to the oldies. I added probably a quart's worth of vegetable broth and used the fabulous hand blender to combine everything from rustic chunk to rustic charm. A cup of cream made the whole thing creamy-dreamy and that's what the end-result of the corn soup experiment was. I added the fresh tomato flourish that John Derian had, and that made for an easier photo, since soups always look boring as hell in pictures.
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| Tomato, tomahto, let's just call it dinner - Photos by Wasabi Prime |
Portabello mushrooms are another versatile ingredient to work with. I know it's touted as a meat substitute, and while it's got the moxy to stand up to being grilled, if I get a portabello burger, I'm not having it because I want faux beef, I'm eating it because I dig fungus and I appreciate its own nuanced flavor.
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| Pesto from Jardin de Wasabi - Photos by Wasabi Prime |
Jardin de Wasabi was thankfully able to yield a good amount of basil this season, so with a few snips, the plants were shorn of their precious leaves and a batch of pesto was made, using almonds instead of pine nuts because we're crazy like that. This was the genesis of the Caprese-inspired mushroom caps. I love tomatoes and cheese, but what makes them even more wonderful is when the mozzarella gets gooey and toasted from the oven. The fresh basil wouldn't have stood up to the scorch of the broiler and I really wanted the herb flavor baked into the ingredients, so I put a healthy smear of pesto over each mushroom before they got pre-roasted in the oven. Once cooked down, each cap was piled with thinly sliced tomatoes and a wedge of fresh mozzarella, and under the hot coil they went on the road to Melty Delicious-ville, final destination: My Belly. It was a good trip.
I don't always include desserts in meals, but I had been inspired by blogger Carli, of Velveeta Ain't Food fame, who had a great avocado ice cream recipe. I loved the idea of a creamy recipe that used a unique ingredient combined with savory elements like spiced nuts and sweet roasted coconut as toppers. However, our ice cream machine has a broken paddle, causing a serious harshing of my ice cream mellow, so I couldn't make avocado dessert magic. I still wanted to combine the spiced, savory nuts and sweet coconut with some kind of dessert, so I opted for a store-bought mango sorbet.
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| Sweet, spicy, salty -- keep dessert interesting! - Photo by Wasabi Prime |
The dessert result was still delicious. I think even a vanilla ice cream would have worked fine with the spiced pecans and coconut. While I was roasting the corn for the soup, I double-booked the oven, using a second rack for the cookie sheet with the seasoned pecans and some shredded coconut. I still have a fair bit of leftover coco-pecan-nut sprinklage, so I may get a little pint of creamy vanilla and make my Friday just that much more enjoyable.
Friday, September 4, 2009
UnRecipe: Secondhand Sandwiches
One word: Leftovers. One more word: Awesome. Some people reserve a tall glass of hatorade for having a twice-eaten meal, or in our case, several times-eaten meal. My father never liked any scrap of food to go to waste, so we got used to making do before making new in the Wasabi household of my youth. From a recent barbecue at a friend's house, we wound up with an excess of sausage and vegetable kebabs, along with miscellaneous things like hamburger buns and slices of cheese. What some would call leftovers, I would call a Roasted Sausage and Vegetable Secondhand Sandwich.
I think if you add "roasted" in front of anything, it just sounds better, but in reality, the kebabs could have been eaten without touching a grill. I had bought pre-cooked herbed chicken and andouille sausage and cut them up to thread between chunks of vegetables for the barbecue. I don't usually like mixing veggies with meat on sticks, since they all have different cooking times, but since the sausages were already cooked, they would just brown up while the veggies got a quick char without getting overdone. I chopped everything down to a smaller bite sizes and piled the goods on a soft roll with a slice of Swiss on top. I hollowed-out the top dome of the roll to jettison the extra bread and leave more room for the precious meaty-cheesy payload. A few minutes under the broiler to get the cheese melted and toast up the bread, and by the Power of Greyskull, this sandwich was complete!
It was a MacGyver Meal of delicious proportions. Simple, maybe boring to some, but delicious. I don't have sandwiches often, so it was an extra treat to have the lovely, crusty bread. I also had a bit of extra chile mayonnaise which tasted quite nice on the sandwich. I had pulsed a couple of adobo chiles with mayonnaise to make a spicy spread for hamburgers and inevitably wound up with more mayo than burger. Just another flavor piece to add to the secondhand sandwich. As a side note, grilled zucchini is marvelous. We had several monster-sized ones from the Redmond Farmer's Market, and they grilled up just beautifully on the kebabs and held up just dandy as leftovers for the sandwiches.
* Post-Script: Thanks to Serious Eats' Photograzing for posting its photo and making this secondhand sandwich feel like top honors!
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| We love our buns n' weiners - Photo by Wasabi Prime |
I think if you add "roasted" in front of anything, it just sounds better, but in reality, the kebabs could have been eaten without touching a grill. I had bought pre-cooked herbed chicken and andouille sausage and cut them up to thread between chunks of vegetables for the barbecue. I don't usually like mixing veggies with meat on sticks, since they all have different cooking times, but since the sausages were already cooked, they would just brown up while the veggies got a quick char without getting overdone. I chopped everything down to a smaller bite sizes and piled the goods on a soft roll with a slice of Swiss on top. I hollowed-out the top dome of the roll to jettison the extra bread and leave more room for the precious meaty-cheesy payload. A few minutes under the broiler to get the cheese melted and toast up the bread, and by the Power of Greyskull, this sandwich was complete!
It was a MacGyver Meal of delicious proportions. Simple, maybe boring to some, but delicious. I don't have sandwiches often, so it was an extra treat to have the lovely, crusty bread. I also had a bit of extra chile mayonnaise which tasted quite nice on the sandwich. I had pulsed a couple of adobo chiles with mayonnaise to make a spicy spread for hamburgers and inevitably wound up with more mayo than burger. Just another flavor piece to add to the secondhand sandwich. As a side note, grilled zucchini is marvelous. We had several monster-sized ones from the Redmond Farmer's Market, and they grilled up just beautifully on the kebabs and held up just dandy as leftovers for the sandwiches.
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| From Farmer's Market to Fabulous - Photos by Wasabi Prime |
* Post-Script: Thanks to Serious Eats' Photograzing for posting its photo and making this secondhand sandwich feel like top honors!
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
UnRecipe: In the Heat of Fajita
Wait, wait -- don't leave us, Summer! I see you packing up your things, taking all your stone fruits, the fresh berries, starting to change out your green leaves to hints of orange and yellow. I realize things were said... complaining about the record-breaking temperatures... how all our plants were dying... but come on, you can't blame people for what was said in the heat of the moment. How can we make it up to you? A meal we cook outside, right on the grill? Oh, really...? So you'll stay, at least for dinner, then. Well, okay then, let's eat!
Now that we're on more civil terms with the season and temperate heads prevailed, the Wasabi Prime household saw fit to enjoy one more meal cooked al fresco on the grill-o. With so many garden goods in season, it's hard not to throw anything and everything on the hot irons of the grill to let it become seared to perfection. Add some corn tortillas, and it's Drunken Fajitas with a Summer Corn Salad!
We defrosted a flank steak, and marinated it in a loose adaptation of a recipe I had seen from the Spiky-Haired One, Food Network's overly-peroxided Guy Fieri. He had a recipe for a grilled tequila lime flank steak, whose marinade looked quite flavorful, but I did a simpler version, just using lime juice, tequila (one shot for the steak, one shot for me), and a little liquid from a can of adobo chiles, which are cans of smoked chiles, sitting in a thick red vinegar sauce that you can usually find in the grocery aisle that has dried chiles and other ingredients from Mexico.
Several peppers and red onions were chopped into large chunks and left to sear on the grill. The steak marinated for over a day to drunken perfection. Tequila, or any spirit for that matter, makes the meat flare up a little on the grill, so it's nice to cook something like that outside. That way, all the neighbors can see you panic when you're set aflame. Letting the vegetables cook down to roasted-sweet perfection, they were pulled from the heat and sliced into thin ribbons to hang out with the flank steak once it was done cooking.
A corn salad mixed with black beans, sliced radish, bell peppers and onions is one of my favorite and colorful side dishes. There's really no measuring this salad out, as it's just a combination of whatever vegetables you like with a few cups' worth of corn, tossed together. The dressing for the salad also used the adobo chiles. I really like using them since they add a smoky, slow-cooked flavor, and the fact that it comes in a can makes for easy application into different foods.
I know it's an UnRecipe post, which is more slap-dash MacGyver Cooking than anything else, but the adobo chile sauce is worth listing, as it has many food applications beyond what was cooked for our fading summertime meal.
Adobo Chile Dressing
3-4 small adobo chiles and about 2 teaspoons of the sauce (reduce amount by half if you don't like spicy)
1/2 bunch of fresh cilantro, washed and dried
Juice and zest of 1 large lime
2 cups of canola or olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
Take a blender or food processor and pulse down the chiles, adobo sauce, and lime juice until the chiles have been rendered to tiny bits (don't want a mouthful of heat!). Add in the fresh cilantro, stems, leaves and all, as it's a pretty soft herb and it will get chopped down. Drizzle in the oil as the cilantro breaks down and the whole sauce begins to incorporate into a reddish pesto-like consistency. Sprinkle in salt and pepper to taste; you may not even need it if you like the flavor as-is. Add more oil if you need to loosen the sauce.
You'll most likely wind up with leftover adobo sauce, but keep it for drizzling over eggs at breakfast, or other meats. It's got fresh herbs in it, so it won't last forever, but I'm sure once you buzz up a batch, you'll discover new ways to add it to things and, oh bother... it's already gone.
* Post Script - Om-nommy thanks to Serious Eats' Photograzing for posting the fajita photo. Gracias!
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| Don't Go Away Mad, Summer, Just Have a Fajita - Photo by Wasabi Prime |
Now that we're on more civil terms with the season and temperate heads prevailed, the Wasabi Prime household saw fit to enjoy one more meal cooked al fresco on the grill-o. With so many garden goods in season, it's hard not to throw anything and everything on the hot irons of the grill to let it become seared to perfection. Add some corn tortillas, and it's Drunken Fajitas with a Summer Corn Salad!
We defrosted a flank steak, and marinated it in a loose adaptation of a recipe I had seen from the Spiky-Haired One, Food Network's overly-peroxided Guy Fieri. He had a recipe for a grilled tequila lime flank steak, whose marinade looked quite flavorful, but I did a simpler version, just using lime juice, tequila (one shot for the steak, one shot for me), and a little liquid from a can of adobo chiles, which are cans of smoked chiles, sitting in a thick red vinegar sauce that you can usually find in the grocery aisle that has dried chiles and other ingredients from Mexico.
Several peppers and red onions were chopped into large chunks and left to sear on the grill. The steak marinated for over a day to drunken perfection. Tequila, or any spirit for that matter, makes the meat flare up a little on the grill, so it's nice to cook something like that outside. That way, all the neighbors can see you panic when you're set aflame. Letting the vegetables cook down to roasted-sweet perfection, they were pulled from the heat and sliced into thin ribbons to hang out with the flank steak once it was done cooking.
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| Burn, Baby Burn - Photos by Wasabi Prime |
A corn salad mixed with black beans, sliced radish, bell peppers and onions is one of my favorite and colorful side dishes. There's really no measuring this salad out, as it's just a combination of whatever vegetables you like with a few cups' worth of corn, tossed together. The dressing for the salad also used the adobo chiles. I really like using them since they add a smoky, slow-cooked flavor, and the fact that it comes in a can makes for easy application into different foods.
I know it's an UnRecipe post, which is more slap-dash MacGyver Cooking than anything else, but the adobo chile sauce is worth listing, as it has many food applications beyond what was cooked for our fading summertime meal.
Adobo Chile Dressing
3-4 small adobo chiles and about 2 teaspoons of the sauce (reduce amount by half if you don't like spicy)
1/2 bunch of fresh cilantro, washed and dried
Juice and zest of 1 large lime
2 cups of canola or olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
Take a blender or food processor and pulse down the chiles, adobo sauce, and lime juice until the chiles have been rendered to tiny bits (don't want a mouthful of heat!). Add in the fresh cilantro, stems, leaves and all, as it's a pretty soft herb and it will get chopped down. Drizzle in the oil as the cilantro breaks down and the whole sauce begins to incorporate into a reddish pesto-like consistency. Sprinkle in salt and pepper to taste; you may not even need it if you like the flavor as-is. Add more oil if you need to loosen the sauce.
You'll most likely wind up with leftover adobo sauce, but keep it for drizzling over eggs at breakfast, or other meats. It's got fresh herbs in it, so it won't last forever, but I'm sure once you buzz up a batch, you'll discover new ways to add it to things and, oh bother... it's already gone.
* Post Script - Om-nommy thanks to Serious Eats' Photograzing for posting the fajita photo. Gracias!
Sunday, August 16, 2009
FoodTrek/MacGyver Meal: Disc-orzo Inferno
Not to toot the Pacific Northwest's horn yet again, but Seattleites know how to throw a party, and they do it with eccentric aplomb, complete with disco ball. Toot-toot! Beep-beep!
I was fortunate to be invited to a summer BBQ at Casa de Awesome, thrown by the diva duo of roommies Jennifer and Kat. It had been an eagerly-anticipated fête, designed to celebrate the love of our rare summer months, as well as an equal love of food and drink.
The party was complete with Bartender Nick who converted the kitchen into a full bar, serving up margaritas, mojitos, and his specialty, the old fashioned Sidecar. Hostess Jennifer brewed up her favorite white sangria in an Olympic-sized punchbowl that served as an example of fruit heaven, where peaches and citrus go to die.
I went with fellow blogger, SJB, and we headed over early to help with some of the preparation and the skewering of meats and vegetables. After no major goring of hands had occurred during kebob-ification, SJB took on the role of Grill Master Flash, while hostesses J+K made their sweep of the party floor, with the force of two Auntie Mame's.
The party wasn't without its resident party animals, Tucker and Fisher. I was able to get a decent photo of Tucker, but Fisher was avoiding the paparazzi that night, too busy meeting and greeting guests and sniffing around to see what goodies had perchance fallen on the floor.
The only thing the Prime was tasked to do was bring a salad. Expecting a guestlist up to thirty people, I went with the cater-friendly, giant aluminium turkey roaster pan and in typical MacGyver-cooking style, threw together an Italian-themed orzo salad. It's what I would like to call a "drunken salad" as I was in the middle of cocktail hour when making it the night before.
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| Dia de Los Disco / Come on Barbie, let's go party. Bring your pasties. - Photos by Wasabi Prime |
I was fortunate to be invited to a summer BBQ at Casa de Awesome, thrown by the diva duo of roommies Jennifer and Kat. It had been an eagerly-anticipated fête, designed to celebrate the love of our rare summer months, as well as an equal love of food and drink.
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| Here's to swimmin' with bowlegged women. Another sangria and margarita, bartender! - Photos by Wasabi Prime |
The party was complete with Bartender Nick who converted the kitchen into a full bar, serving up margaritas, mojitos, and his specialty, the old fashioned Sidecar. Hostess Jennifer brewed up her favorite white sangria in an Olympic-sized punchbowl that served as an example of fruit heaven, where peaches and citrus go to die.
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| The calm before the party storm, and partaking of SJB's meats. - Photos by Wasabi Prime |
I went with fellow blogger, SJB, and we headed over early to help with some of the preparation and the skewering of meats and vegetables. After no major goring of hands had occurred during kebob-ification, SJB took on the role of Grill Master Flash, while hostesses J+K made their sweep of the party floor, with the force of two Auntie Mame's.
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| Party Animal, Mr. Tucker. Who let the dogs out? - Photos by Wasabi Prime |
The party wasn't without its resident party animals, Tucker and Fisher. I was able to get a decent photo of Tucker, but Fisher was avoiding the paparazzi that night, too busy meeting and greeting guests and sniffing around to see what goodies had perchance fallen on the floor.
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| She's got legs, and she knows how to use them. Kat flashes her Blue Steel. BOOZE! - Photos by Wasabi Prime |
The only thing the Prime was tasked to do was bring a salad. Expecting a guestlist up to thirty people, I went with the cater-friendly, giant aluminium turkey roaster pan and in typical MacGyver-cooking style, threw together an Italian-themed orzo salad. It's what I would like to call a "drunken salad" as I was in the middle of cocktail hour when making it the night before.
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| Orzo salad - the longer it sits out and festers, the better. - Photos by Wasabi Prime |
In typical Wasabi Prime fashion, there was no real recipe. I just knew it needed to be a salad that could sit out at room temperature for several hours, vegetarian-friendly, made with basic ingredients that were familiar and pleasing to palates. In atypical Wasabi Prime fashion, I'm going to attempt to list the recipe below. I cut the ingredients by half, since I doubt you'll need enough to feed twenty-plus people, but it still makes plenty, so it's a great party recipe.
Roasted Vegetable Orzo Salad w/ Herb Vinaigrette - serves up to 8-10
1 box/package of orzo (about 1 lb) / 1 large red onion, peeled and quartered / 2 zucchini, ends chopped and halved lengthwise / 1 red bell pepper, stem and seeds removed, cut in half / 1 container of cherry tomatoes / 2 cups drained/pitted kalamata olives / 2 cups crumbled feta cheese / 2-3 tablespoons olive oil / 1 tablespoon of dried oregano / 1 teaspoon fresh cracked pepper / 1 teaspoon kosher salt
Herb Vinaigrette Ingredients: 1/2 cup of fresh basil leaves / juice and zest of one lemon / 3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil /salt + pepper to taste
Get to Business: Preheat oven to 420° F and make sure the baking rack is centered. Take a shallow baking pan and cover with foil for easy cleanup. Take the cut vegetables (onion, zucchini, bell pepper, and whole cherry tomatoes) and toss with olive oil, oregano, salt and pepper. Spread onto the baking pan -- use two if the vegetables don't all fit. Place in oven to roast for 20 to 25 minutes or until vegetables have roasted down and become soft.
Take a large pot and fill with water. Set on stove to start boiling the water for the orzo. As it gets to a rolling boil, throw in a healthy pinch of salt to flavor the pasta and toss the whole box/bag in. Stir constantly, as the pasta bits will stick together as well as to the bottom of the pot. Cook until al dente or cooked, but still firm; this will help it continue to soak up flavor from the dressing. Drain pasta and toss with olive oil to keep the grains from sticking while it cools.
While the orzo and roasted vegetables cool down, take a blender or food processor and pulse down the basil and lemon juice/zest. Drizzle in the olive oil as the blades chop the herbs down and incorporate with the lemon juice. Pulse in the salt and pepper, adding in small amounts so you can taste as it mixes -- add more as you see fit. Finished vinaigrette should taste like a lemony pesto with a loose consistency. Add more olive oil if it's too thick, as it needs to be able to easily mix with the salad.
Once the vegetables are cool to the touch, chop down into smaller bite-sized pieces. The cherry tomatoes should be fine as-is. Take the drained kalamata olives and run a knife through them for a rough chop and ensure there were no pits left in -- there's always one hiding in there. Crumble the feta cheese in and incorporate all ingredients, tossing with the finished herb vinaigrette. Can serve immediately or let it set in the fridge for a few hours to let all the flavor soak in. The dish can be made up to 24 hours ahead.
* Post-Script - Thanks to Serious Eats' Photograzing for posting the orzo salad ingredients!!
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