Of Steaks and Candy Apples

Trying to fix my sleep schedule is not easy. Especially when you nap from 4-6pm. When I woke up, I knew I wouldn't have enough time to cook the steaks I defrosted overnight and get to class by 7pm, so I grabbed a candy apple that a friend got for me earlier today (thanks dude!). I'll just present the following photos in succession. 

And done.

Nothing like waking up and enjoying a candy apple :P

After starving throughout class (granola bars are a poor excuse of sustenance...especially in place of dinner), I decided to marinate two steaks with oyster sauce and some cooking wine. For veggies, I chopped up a red, orange, and yellow bell pepper, an onion, garlic, and sautéed them together, finally adding chicken broth to reduce. To keep with the steak flavor profile, I added some oyster sauce to the veggies as well. I pan-seared the steaks, toasted some bread, puréed some of the bell pepper reduction as a fun sauce, and dug in :)

A nice medium steak in the middle.

Best part is, the 2nd steak and the remaining veggies are packed for lunch tomorrow.

How I Did It:

Veggies:

1. On medium-high heat, sauté onions, add salt. Once browned, throw in bell peppers, garlic, stir occasionally for 5 min.

2. Add about 1/3 can of chicken broth and some oyster sauce

3. Let it reduce.

4. I actually threw this mixture into the steak pan after taking the steaks out so the veggies would pick up some caramelized steak flavor.

Steak:

1. Marinade steaks and bring them to room temperature (just leave them out, ~10 min).

2. On high heat, sear steaks for 4 min, I leave the lid on so they cook inside

3. Flip and cook for 4 min

4. Take them out of the pan and let them rest for a little.

Cooking Chinese, Ordering Sushi

This post is about the actual Chinese food I make at home. I've got an assortment of food I'd eat more often, food I'd make much less often, and food to order when you're just craving.

First off is a simple stir-fried bok choy, sliced beef and vermicelli in the bottom there (though you can't really see it). Super simple, serves my veggie/protein needs, and relatively tasty (just add soy sauce).

On this day, I went full out making Chinese food you'd find in a restaurant. Little did I know how much salt and oil and that requires! This is why I don't make restaurant-style Chinese food on a daily basis, it is TOTALLY different from what Chinese people actually eat at home. However, on this day I pan-fried some chicken thighs marinated in oyster sauce, stir-fried asparagus and olives, and used the leftover oil from frying the chicken to crisp up some noodles. It was SO salty, and VERY oily, and I actually didn't feel very good after (or during the meal for that matter...I had to drink tons of water). It will be quite a long time before I fry noodles again.

On another night, my roommate and I decided to order sushi! It's always pricey and this one came out to around $35 dollars if I remember correctly....but it gave me the excuse to pull out these Japanese dishes that I rarely use. It also came with shrimp sushi (that was put in a separate container...due to my allergies).

Mmmm....

PS...I LOVE the Korean sushi roll (that's the one in the front with the fake crab, egg, cucumber, radish, and beef).

Sometimes I get frozen dumplings (though not often anymore), and decide to be lazy one night so I them out of the freezer. You simply boil them until they float (and I also cut it open because I'm still a novice at telling when it's cooked through). I had some Chinese vegetables that I stir-fried to complete the dish. I believe this is Chinese broccoli (Gai Lan). What's important is that it's green.

Chili, The Weekend Pizza Pocket, and a Deconstructed Sandwich

I've always wanted to make chili for the longest time, but never had the guts to do it I suppose. It's just one of things that seems like a daunting task until you actually do it. So I did it :) Instead of ground beef, I bought a flank tip steak and chopped it up into bite size pieces (my family doesn't like to buy ground meat...I guess we're paranoid about contamination) and browned it with onions in a hot pan for about 5 minutes. Then, I added red/green/yellow bell peppers, V8 juice, and mixed beans. Threw in some garlic cloves, bay leaves, and chili powder and let it simmer for 45 minutes.

It turned out okay, but my roommate said it was really good so I'll trust him on that :P I just felt there was something missing, so next time I think I'm going to make it from scratch (without the V8 juice). However, it was super easy and quick to make, and has been added to my repertoire :D

This weekend, I decided to make grilled cheese sandwiches just like I had back in the days of camping haha. I packed Monterey Jack cheese, pasta sauce, and cilantro in between two pieces of olive bread, and minced garlic to spread on the outside of the olive bread. I pan fried them on med-low heat, sprinkling oregano, salt, and pepper on top. The meal kinda doesn't match well with the whole 'eat healthy' thing I've been doing, but it was just one of those days where you give in haha. For three sandwiches.

For dinner I worked on my pan-fried fish (in this case, salmon) topped with a salsa made of onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, and olives. I planned to have the salmon sitting on top of the salsa, sitting nicely on top of the rice (like I would imagine it in a restaurant), but that didn't really work out... Not bad though, just needed some salt.

Finally, I threw together a spinach/cilantro omelette, olive bread, and chopped vegetables today for a Deconstructed Sandwich. Now, it's not just my fancy name for this dish, because as I ate it, I would sometimes take a bite of each ingredient or I would build a mini open-faced sandwich playing with the order of the layers of food (wow that was a long sentence). In other words, I played with my food because I'm still very a much a kid at the dinner table.

(For my omelette I use two eggs and I add egg white for extra protein and volume of food)

On Mangoes, Steak, and Fried Rice

So I grabbed a mango the other day and decided to just skin out and eat it like an apple. I think it's much more amazing when you sink your teeth into an entire mango (don't bite too hard on the pit) and chew. Wouldn't you agree? Either way it doesn't matter if you agree because I'll keep peeling my fruits and bite them   (and yes, I've done it to an orange :D )

The unlucky mango.

Before I left for my soccer game last night, I defrosted a steak and let the rice cooker go until I got back. Got back and stir-fried some bok choy (see http://www.pccnaturalmarkets.com/health/food-guide/bok-choy/~default) with a mashed clove of garlic and some ginger. De-glazed pan with 1/2 cup chicken broth, 1/2 cup water. Rubbed some Montreal Steak Sauce on the red meat and seared each side for 2 min. 

                  

I'm still getting used to my new stove which is super powerful, so I'm gonna have to adjust next time by turning it down and cooking it longer. It was nice and tender on the inside, but a little too red because I felt my stomach mad at me today haha...

                  

Saved 1/3 of it for a sandwich the next day. Sandwich didn't happen. I just ate the leftovers out of the bowl with a salad haha.

And so we come to tonight's dinner: Fried Rice. You'd think Chinese people eat this stuff everyday because that's what you see at our restaurants. Well surprise surprise, it takes a lot of oil to make and since I don't want to acquire heart disease at age 25, fried rice doesn't happen too often.

I first fried an omelette and saved it on a plate. Fried what we call "lap cheung" which is technically a Chinese sausage but that just sounds weird to me. It's kinda sweet and also oily and bad for you (but soo good...it's like bacon to me). So I fried that, added chopped shallots, some more oil (there wasn't any oil when frying the lap cheung because....they fry in their own fat just like bacon...see how bad this is for you??), added chopped cucumber, corn, mushrooms, and whole scallops. Added some chicken broth for flavour and let it cook for a minute or so. Then added in the rice from last night (this is important: you can't add rice you just made because it's too gloopy. It has to be a little drier and you can do that by saving it in the fridge overnight). Drizzled in sesame seed oil, soya sauce, and added the eggs in at the end (so they wouldn't dry up). And voila:

                        

Heaven in my mouth.

Sad news: as I got the bowl of rice from my fridge, my hand hit the freezer door and I dropped the bowl. The rice wasn't touching too much of the floor but it had a bunch of shards on one side. Had to throw out half of it D:

                    

On a happy note I still have enough fried rice leftovers for another meal :) And omg I need to get to class now.

Keep Fishin'

And we're back after an extended absence! I apologize, as I away for several reasons:

1) Midterms/projects due the past week

2) My mom was here and cooking, so I felt like it wasn't an honest representation of what I make, but I now that I think of it I should share anyways

3) Not only is the title of this entry representative of what I cooked, but it's also a great song by Weezer (there are MUPPETS in the video. Need I say more?)

Just had a great Kenpo X workout from the P90X series, and wasn't craving anything too heavy (and I also got a pull-up bar that came with a nutrition guide suggesting not to have starch after 12 pm!) so, I stir-fried asparagus and whole tomatoes topped off with a fish fillet.

Everything was going fine when I cooked the veggies, until the water all evaporated at the bottom and starting burning/smoking D: As I panicked to shut off the smoke detector and turn down the heat, the fish fillet got a little burned as well. Had to throw out half the veggies :( My new stove is way too powerful on full heat.

However, topping off the fish with my hometown neighbour's garden-grown chives and using cilantro with the veggies made it so much better. Can't tell if it's a burnt taste or the Greek seasoning in the veggies haha.

Anywho, I've added some other things I've eaten in the past week:

Here's a steak I made two nights ago, with the first batch of asparagus and mushrooms and a side of potatoes. I just simply boiled the potatoes with a little salt, stir-fried the veggies with garlic and ginger most likely, and the steak with Montreal Steak marinade. I used an electronic temperature sensor to get my steak to medium-well but it was super bloody and red when I cut into it. Threw it back on the grilled-pan some more and it got to the texture I really like, but was interestingly still REALLY red. I suppose I like it more medium than I thought?

Finally, here's some typical Chinese food I have: dumplings and a veggie bun. I got these minced chicken dumplings from Wal-Mart, and I feel like I've betrayed Chinese supermarket brands haha. The veggie bun came from T&T Supermarket back in Sauga when my parents came over. The filling is a little sweet, but not like dessert.

Thanks for reading if you got this far! This was a long update since I've been gone, but I'll hopefully keep updating more often :D

I could really use a glass of white wine or sparkling juice after that fish fillet haha

Cheers,

Jay

My First Beef Roast

So today I went grocery shopping and picked up a pre-marinated $12 beef roast from Wal-Mart. I decided to test it out on the new oven. Instructions said that a medium beef roast would take 2 1/4 hours at 375 F.

Lies.

I cooked it for 1.5 hours and it was medium-well :( I don't like my beef rare and bleeding all over the place, but a nice, tender medium makes me happy.

I watched Alton Brown's Good Eats while waiting for the roast beef to finish, so maybe I put my expectations of a melt-in-your mouth roast too high...

While letting the beef roast rest and reabsorb its juices, I scraped off the drippings and made a gravy from it. Turned out pretty well, but could've used some red wine.

There were some really nice pieces of beef like the end cuts and the very centre pieces, but the rest was a little tougher to chew. I added it to the scallop/veggie stir-fry I made yesterday with some leftover rice as well. Decent combo.

On a sweeter note, I bought dark chocolate at Wal-Mart as well, but it melted inside the wrapper while inside the hot car. Here's how it unwrapped hahaha.

Time to clean all the dishes now. There are SO MANY D: And for the rest of the week I will be eating many variations of the roast beef as I only had two slices out of twelve. Potluck anyone?