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What are you having for dinner? (wanna share your recipe?)

Hong Kong Style Tomato Beef

This is one of those comes together really fast stir fry in a blazing hot wok (or nonstick pan) meals... that if I’m making other things I save this for last. The prep takes much longer than the cooking. Slice&chop. Marinate for 30. Cook for 3-5 minutes. Bonus points if you have the Chinese takeout boxes for leftovers or serving. ;) Everything tastes better out of those quirky little boxes. No idea why.

1lb / 500g Flank steak sliced thin against the grain
(partially freezing helps)
Peanut or Veg Oil
1 bunch green onions chopped &/or 1 Yellow Onion Thickly Sliced
2 cloves garlic chopped
1lb / 500g whole tomatoes quartered
(tinned whole is fine, half or quartered)
Fresh ground black pepper

Marinade
- TB soy sauce
- TB Shaoxing or Dry Sherry
- TB Cornstarch (to “velvet” the meat)

“Sauce”
(just added to the wok right at the end with tomatoes to oomph up the flavor & liquid content a smidge.)
- Dash of soy sauce
- Dash of Shaoxing or Dry sherry

1. Stir the soy sauce, Shaoxing, & cornstarch together into a slurry and coat beef strips (I usually do this in a ziplock bag because I hate washing dishes, but a bowl is fine, too ;)). Let marinate 30 minutes. ***

2. Heat a wok on high until a drop of water flicked in it instantly evaporates ... ring it with oil, and swirl around to coat bottom & sides.

3. Briefly sear the beef strips until they’re colored but not cooked all the way through, 1-2 minutes & set aside.

4. Ring & swirl the pan with oil again and briefly fry onions and garlic until fragrant, apx 30 seconds.

5. Add tomatoes & dash of Shaoxing & Soy and cook for 1-2 minutes (toms should be hot, but still hold their shape)

6. Add beef back into wok & stir fry to warm through, 1-2 minutes, crack pepper over to taste, & serve.

***

If you have broccoli??? when done with marinating, pull out half the beef for tomato beef, add an inch (teaspoon) of grated ginger, a dash of oyster sauce, dash of hoisin sauce, & couple drops of sesame oil. Add half an inch of water to a sauté pan and your broccoli florets, steam until water is almost gone &/or broccoli is neon green, add meat and maybe a little bit more water if it seems dry (if you added too much water to begin with and they’re bright green in a lake, just pour some out before meat), add lid & cook for 5 minutes whilst stir frying the tomato beef, & voila. Tomato beef & broccoli beef in one go.

If you like spicy broccoli beef, those little red peppers I never buy or use (and as such don’t know the names of :whistling: ) go great... so does sriracha squirted over the top.
 
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I love that my Honey is a chef!
We have a crappy apartment kitchen, but we work well together.
We recently splurged on a beautiful salmon filet. Rubbed it with a poultry seasoning, covered it with thinly sliced lemon, and baked it in the oven. Fantastic! Last night we added the leftover salmon to a mixed greens salad and homemade vinaigrette.
 
Tonight I am making Paneer Makhani. It is very simple and pretty quick.

Ingredients ( for 2 portions);
200g Paneer
1 tab pureed ginger
1 clove garlic
100g tomatoes-pureed
1 tsp garam masala
75mls cream
2 onions - fried then pureed
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp paprika
1 chilli
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp fenugrek
2 tsp sugar
75mls coconut milk
water
salt to taste.

Cut the paneer into cubes and shallow fry for a few minutes until it starts to brown then remove from the heat.
Blend together the onion puree, tomato puree, ginger and chilli, then add to the pan. Add all the spices and about 100 mls water. Bring to the boil.
Add the coconut milk, mix well and then add the cream.
Add the sugar and salt to taste.
Add the fried paneer back to the pan and cover with a lid. Cook for 5-6 minutes.

Serve with garlic naan and/or basmati rice
 
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I was at the docks today (& the little asian market that sprigs up whenever the boats are in)... so we’ve got sashimi grade salmon & tuna & octopus (steamed, right there, no work for me!). Daikon (to be grated into long thin strips, that I do have to do), fresh lemon, & flying fish roe. All for less than a BigMac! :sneaky: Love it.

Don’t get me wrong, sushi restaurants are awesome... but what I bought for $9 and change at the boats (and is enough to feed 4 big appetites, -which includes my usually puny one, when we’re talking sushi- with leftovers to go into seafood chowder tomorrow), would cost me between $25-$90 depending on how I ordered it, where, for 1 person.

Even when I’m not living on a shoestring, I’m still a cheapskate. :whistling:

Tako Sunomono (octopus salad)
Fresh steamed octopus, sliced thinnish
Daikon radish julienned or grated (if grating, wring out extra juice)
Peeled cucumber slices (whisper thin)
Wakame, or mixed seaweed salad (rehydrated & rinsed)
Seasoned Rice Vinegar
Flying fish roe (tobiko)
Fresh lemon squeezed over

In a small bowl place big pinch of cucumber slices, a pinch of wakame, then a big pinch of daikon threads/sticks. Layer or just slip them in side by side. Drizzle over about a teaspoon of seasoned rice vinegar (if it’s unseasoned, just add a small pinch of salt and sugar). Layer over several slices of octopus, a small pinch of flying fish roe, and squeeze lemon over all of it. Let sit about 2 minutes to let the lemon & vinegar do magic things to the roe & octopus & veg, if sitting longer, place a couple thin slices of lemon over and place in fridge to keep chilled... and ideaaaally don’t add the roe until right before serving (with a splash of lemon) because the acids will cook it. But it’s also fine if you dont. They’ll just be pastel orange instead of glossy, and won’t be little flavor bombs. I love flavor bombs :inlove: But it’s also not the end of the world. Clearly, since the octopus is already steamed, it really doesn’t care about acids. Or much else -we hope- for that matter.


Bara Chirashi

I call this Sushi-For-Lazy-People (IE me! Me!Me!Me! That’s ME)

All it is are your favorite sushi ingredients, chopped on a 1cm or 1/2cm dice, served scattered over cold sticky rice. Same token, if you think Hawaiian Poke over ....rice? (Weird! Why add rice???) You won’t be far wrong.

I usually use a mix of salmon, tuna, tobiko, radish sprouts, daikon, cucumber, avocado, crumbled nori, & pickled ginger. But have been known to say “I’m done” after just chopping the fish. Sometimes I don’t even put said fish over rice. (I know. Hey. I did mention the lazy thing, right? I lived out of a almondbutter jar for almost a year at one point -which is bad enough- but there was also the FruityPebbles year, and the Years of Potatoes, plural. So I’m counting fresh food -Even half made- as a win. Full stop.) We could always just consider that badly sliced (into cubes? What gives?) sashimi. But, for real, it was meant to be bara chirashi, and I just ran out of motivation. Eh. Good enough. Since that’s probably how it was invented in the first place (a tired housewife narrowing her eyes at the prepped ingredients on the counter, and saying “Screw it!” Bowls. Rice. Other stuff. Done.) I figure it’s in the spirit of the thing ;)

For better directions... look here >>> Chirashi is an artistic fish and rice bowl that’s full of flavors and colors

Miso Soup

Dashi
Miso Paste (I like awase, a mix of red/aka & white/shiso but any kind works)
Hot water
(Optional) Silken Firm Tofu cubes
(Optional) Wakame, rehydrated & rinsed.
(Optional) Inari (fried marinated bean curd) sliced
(Optional) green onion slices

There’s a reason even at the finest restaurants miso soup is often free, or a token $2. It costs pennies to make and is dead easy.

Mix together the following
Tsp of Dashi (from a jar with dozens to hundreds of teaspoons)
1 cup Water just off the boil
TB of Miso Paste
(Optional) Extras ... literally, just plink them in.
Done.
 
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Bahn Mí

Baguette (toasted)
Garlic Mayo
Lemongrass Pork*
Daikon julienned - (optional) dash of seasoned rice vinegar
Carrot julienned - (optional) dash of seasoned rice vinegar
Cucumber sliced lengthwise
Jalapeño sliced thin
Cilantro / Fresh Coriander (roughly chopped)

Toast
Mayo
Hot meat
Cold veg
Done

:happy:

* Vietnamese Restaurant-Style Grilled Lemongrass Pork (Thit Heo Nuong Xa) - Viet World Kitchen

^^^ I like to make a bunch of this, chop, freeze, & sauté/steam/broil/toast/nuke (whatever is easy in the moment) a handful here and there as needed. For those who are better at not eating pork than I am, dark meat chicken makes lovely bahn mí, too.
 
Tonight's dinner is......
Roast chicken with roast potatoes. Honey roasted parsnips, carrots and gravy. Thinking about having a small corn on the cob either with it or as a starter. Also debating with myself about adding a Yorkshire pudding. I've got some in the freezer and they don't take long.
 

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