easiest, tastiest steak marinade

I am on a house cleaning purge - perhaps instead of spring cleaning, I am fall cleaning. One place that needs some love is my cookbook bookcase. I am always ripping out recipes or being given recipes that I think "I will make one day" - I am sure many people have this as well.

Years ago a former colleague gave me this recipe. Photocopied from a book. Unfortunately I have no idea what the source is, so apologies to the creator. But in an effort to clean the shelf, random papers must go, and this needs to be added to the blog for posterity.

When I think of this recipe I think of the word, umami. The kitchen even smells great when the steak is marinating! No picture, but just know that when this all comes together and you cook your steak perfectly it is a great addition to a meal from the grill!

Ingredients
1 cup dark soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
2 cloves finally minced garlic cloves
1 Tbsp finely chopped fresh ginger
(sometimes I used ground ginger from the spice rack and that works fine too)
freshly ground pepper to taste
1/4 cup of rice wine vinegar (or juice from 1/2 a lemon)
1 Tbsp cornstarch (or tapioca starch)

Directions:

1. Mix all the ingredients together in a non-reactive dish.
   
2. Add the meat, turn to coat and marinate for 10-30 minutes. Turn meat half way through to ensure equal marinating. Do not marinate overnight, as this is a fairly salty marinade.
3. Cook steaks to the doneness you like. Be sure to allow them to rest for 4 minutes and the quickly return to grill to heat up for 30 seconds or so.
   

** Enough for 4 steaks

thai lettuce wraps

I have been so delinquent at posting - yet, I have been taking lots of pictures and scribbling down food combos (I am not sure I could call them recipes!) These are a favourite on a night we wanting take out - but a homemade version. I love that this dish is so versatile, really you could put any veggies or ground meat/tofu into it.

Ingredients:
1/2 small onion
3 cloves garlic
2 Tbsp sesame oil
1/2 to 1 lb ground meat (this is beef, but chicken, turkey and pork have all been good)
2 carrots
2 celery stocks
1 red/yellow or green pepper
2-3 button mushrooms
1 handful chopped spinach
1-2 Tbsp sambal/chili sauce
3 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp hoison sauce
1-2 tsp honey *to taste*
2Tbsp Peanut Satay sauce (optional)

Half a bag of steam fried noodles
One head lettuce

Directions:
1. Wash and finely dice all veggies
2. In a wok or large fry pan heat up sesame oil over medium-high heat
3. Add onions and garlic, do not burn
4. Add meat and brown
5. Add all veggies, except for spinach and stir
6. Add sambal, soy, hoison, peanut satay sauces and honey
7. Allow veggies to cook for about 3-4 minutes
8. Add spinach and cook for another 30 seconds
9. Wash head lettuce and smack the base on the counter, this helps loosen all the leaves
10. Place a layer of the steamed noodles in your serving bowl, top with the hot meat/veggie combo.
11. Serve and Enjoy.

*in the past I have added small cubed firm tofu, it absorbs the sauce nicely*

pseudo taiwanese beef noodle soup

Comfort foods are always very individual to a person's taste and memories associated. Pete is sick right now and wanted spicy Taiwanese beef noodle soup from a little hole in the wall shop about 20 minutes away. I am sure there is somewhere closer in our neighbourhood, but we haven't found it yet. So instead of heading out I thought I would try to create my own version of one of his comfort foods - it turned out pretty well! It is by no means authentic; nor is it right from scratch! Comfort can't take all day long after all.

Ingredients for Beef:
2-3 lb top sirloin roast
salt
pepper
2 garlic cloves
olive oil


Ingredients for Thick Noodles:
3 cups all purpose flour
2 large eggs
1/2 cup water (approximate)


Ingredients for Soup:
3 crushed garlic cloves
2 peeled shallots
8 cups water
1 cube beef bouillon
1 cube veggie bouillon
3 tablespoons hoisin sauce
couple dashes fish sauce
2-3 heaped teaspoons spicy sambal/chili sauce*
*add as little or as much as you like

Directions:
Heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. To prepare the roast pat it dry. Make some slits in the meat, and insert sliced garlic in for flavour. Seasoned it with salt and pepper. Heat olive oil in fry pan. Sear each side of roast; once all sides are seared, place in caserole dish, that has about 1/2 water in it and cover with aluminum foil. We like our meat rare/medium-rare - I cooked for about 50 minutes and overcooked - at that point it was well done - I would suggest about 35-40 minutes for it to not be too over done, OR, if you have time, slow roast it until it is soft and able to fall apart. Once meat is cooked to where you want it, remove from heat, cover and let the juices re-distribute.

Once meat is in the oven, start making the noodles. On a clean counter top, mound the flour, make a well, and crack the eggs into the centre of the well. With your fingers incorporate the eggs into the dough, if needed to help bond it all together, add small amounts of water at a time. Kneed the dough until smooth (about 5 minutes). I don't have a pasta maker, if I did this next part would have been a lot easier! I rolled the pasta out with a rolling pin (divide ball into quarters to make this a lot faster). With a pasta machine you would want to run it through twice at each thickness interval. I thought I had it thin enough when I had it down to about 3 mm, but I would suggest going a little thinner than that. Once rolled out to the thickness you want - roll the dough into a long tube (like a rolled up newspaper), taking your knife cut the pasta into about 5-7mm widths. You have created what looks like a coin of pasta, but once you unroll each coin is a long string of thick noodle pasta. Drape pasta over a clean dish rack, a big bowl, or (gasp!) a pasta drying rack.

To make the soup base I started tossing things in that we had around the house, basically bring the water to a boil and through everything else in, let it simmer away as the flavours infuse.

Boil water for the pasta while it is hanging and drying out. Add pasta a few handfuls at a time, don't overcrowd the pot. Once noodles float to the top (3-4 minutes) add noodles to simmering pot of soup base.

Ladle the noodles and soup into a bowl. You can take the meat, shred it if possible and serve on top of soup. Or you can do what I did. Slice up the roast, into bite size pieces and toss in the soup, that way it infuses with all the flavours of the soup base - either way - enjoy! Great for colds, or just cold rainy weather.

pantry chili

There are some nights when we look in the fridge and it is bare...or at least nothing we really want to eat. Then the great debate, do we order in, do we go out? What can we make... it is raining, so going to the store isn't really what you feel like doing after a long day at work, that's when we usually hit the pantry. This recipe was compiled with what we had on hand, I know it is by no means authentic, but I like that you add what you have. If we had had some frozen corn niblets for example, I would have added those. Spiciness is a personal preference, so always start with less and then work up. For the purposes of a rainy Tuesday night, this worked quite nicely, especially when supplemented with some simple fresh from the oven cornbread.

** the steam was perfect to melt the cheddar into the chili**

Ingredients for Pantry Chili

2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 sweet onion, diced
1 chopped green pepper
2 cups sliced mushrooms (canned would do fine here)
1 lb extra lean ground beef
2 hot peppers, diced (I had some jalapeños on hand)
1 19 oz can of Black Beans
1 19 0z can of Kidney Beans
1 28 oz can of Crushed Tomatoes
14 oz water

4 Tbsp red chili powder
1 Tbsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground chipotle powder
1 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp thyme

** shredded cheese to top

Directions:
In a dutch oven or large pot, heat the oil. Add the garlic, onions, and green and hot peppers, sweat them, being careful not to brown/burn the garlic, when the peppers get soft, add the mushrooms. Add the ground beef once the veggies are all soft. Add seasoning and stir until the ground beef is browned (skim off excess fat, if needed). Add both types of beans, tomatoes and water, let simmer for 20 minutes. Flavour to taste with salt and pepper. Serve with shredded cheese on top.