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.

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.