Chicken Satay ! Peanut Dipping Sauce ! Cucumber Relish ! Oh, my !

 

Yes, Spring is very much on my mind these days ! Yes, I am having a crisis of seasonal fatigue when it comes to winter weather ! Yes, I have bridled under the yoke of a late winter infection that laid me low ! Yes, I am ready for some fresh tangy food that wakes up the taste buds and zaps my kitchen routine out of the late winter casseroles, soups, and heavy braising.

Honey Soy Chicken Thighs - Instant Pot !

We pulled out the Instant Pot this week to make an easy and really tasty fast chicken thigh recipe. Put some steamed rice and extra sauce on the side with a vegetable and the plate was a great dinner. The whole deal came together within 45 minutes.

Vietnamese Pork Noodle Bowl

Quarantine cooking has brought home the real need to use everything up in your fridge before heading out to a market for new supplies. That being said, there is some good food being passed around the Internet these days and this is one of the noodle bowls that I saw recently.

Two Words ...

Chinese Noodles

Chicken with Broccoli and Cashews

Nothing beats a good fast, stir-fry. In the time you can velvet the meat and steam a pot of rice, you can also slice and dice vegetables and aromatics, mix a thickener and get your wok good and hot. Then, it's all slapdash toward the finish - a gorgeous bowl of chicken with broccoli and cashews.
Here's how I did it.

Asian Pickle

The cucumbers have arrived! SB brings three or four in every day and plunks them down on the counter ... a challenge is implied there. Can I stay ahead of them? Well, this year, yes! I donate some to the local food pantry as part of this little church challenge to spread the seasonal wealth to those who need good local food for free. The rest I use to make salads and these easy pickles.

Tangy Chinese Plum Sauce

... a bumper crop of plums ...

I know traditional plum sauce is made with red plums, but I have an Italian prune plum tree in my back yard. It was the saddest little tree when we first moved to the grey cottage, leaning pathetically  and constantly attacked by the Japanese beetles during the summer. Eight years later, it still leans slightly, but we've placed a cable around the trunk and 'trained it' to stand up straighter.

Pork (or Chicken) and Pumpkin (or Butternut) with Soy and Star Anise

This is a Diana Henry recipe ... and you KNOW how I feel about her! So just take a moment to really look at the photo above and as you do, I want you to imagine the smell of this dish doing a finish in the oven ... a kind of braise in that juice tucked down below the butternut squash and the pork fillets. Do you see the star anise? The red chile bits? The bits of ginger root? The colors alone are enough to recommend this dish, but the sauce flavors really sell it.

Five Spice Chicken ...

This is a chicken for an easy dinner with an Asian feel ... splatchcocked with the skin loosened so that one can spoon an incredibly spicy marinade in between the breast, thigh, and leg meat and the skin. The chicken marinates for the afternoon (or four to six hours) and is then roasted on a bed of onions and garlic. This is a switch up on a Donna Hay recipe; she has one keep the salt and five spice powder aside from the marinade and have it as a sprinkling spice once the bird is roasted. I opted for the spices to be added to the marinade to really heighten the spiciness.

Gooey Pork, Slippery Greens and Mushrooms ...

This is the weather for cozy suppers - ones that are full of heat and spice and that warm you to the cockles of your heart. Now, normally I think of cozy comfort food as something in a bowl with steam rising up and around my face, enveloping me in a heady scent. Yeah. Total comfort and a sauna besides. A total sensory experience that calls back far off memories of home and hearth.

Warm Glass Noodles with Edamame and Sesame Seeds

Could it get any greener ?

Miso Salmon and Soba Noodles

You know how sometimes you just need to make yourself a plate of something that will stick to your ribs? You know how often times that something turns out to be a pasta dish that not only sticks to your ribs, but goes directly to the pit of your stomach and then, miraculously to your hips and thighs? Yeah ... me too. I know alllll about it ... but wait! There has to be a way to have your pasta and not feel guilty.

Easy Sichuan Green Beans

A fast post for an easy green bean side ... beans are starting make the appearance in the produce markets. They are bright green and firm and perfect for a fast steam with an easy spicy topping ... enjoy! I made pork lo mein last evening and these beans sat alongside as a hot spicy counterpoint to all those slippery saucy noodles and pork strips. Heaven to our starving garden work-weary bodies!

Random Recipes - Cathy Rothwell's Teryaki Sirloin Tips

It's that Random Recipe time of month again! Every month, our cyber friend Dom gives us a new way to find a recipe from one of our cook books that we might not have seen, might have passed over, might have been afraid to tackle, might have ...

This month, Dom has challenged us to use his random number generator thingamabob to come up with a random number that corresponds to one of the books on our cookbook shelves; we are to open that particular book, make the recipe, and then "eat and of course, enjoy" ! My number is 128. Well, counting the books on the shelf brought me to the first of two of our family cookbooks - these binders hold recipes that I have diligently saved over the years from family, friends, magazine articles, newspaper slips, labels, etc. They're the one's that I have tried and loved and made the commitment to preserve. I have slowly transcribed them to word files, printed them out, placed them in waterproof plastic page liners and placed them in the huge binder/cookbook - they're there for all time! Anyway, flipping to a random page, I came to my friend Cathy's recipe for sirloin tips - her shiny, sweet, tangy, juicy steak bites.

This recipe is all about the simple marinade. I always soak the tips all day - for flavouring and tenderizing purposes. Then, I make slivers of onions and green peppers and give them a fast stir fry in the wok while I use a grill pan to sear these tips (or if the weather is nice, I grill them) to a perfect medium-rare. It's simple, but so wonderful! Sometimes, we have the tips with steamed jasmine rice and an Asian vegetable side dish, but at other times we have them with roasted spears of sweet potato and a simple salad. However you make them, I hope you enjoy them!

Cathy Rothwell’s Teriyaki Sirloin Tips

One day before you want to grill these, make the marinade and place the tips in a zip-lock bag. Seal and massage the tip with the marinade. Store the bag in a bowl in the fridge and give the meat a toss and a squeeze every now and then during the day.

Grill to medium-rare for the best and most tender chew, brushing the steaks with some of the marinade while they cook.  Sprinkle on the scallions and sesame seeds and serve hot from the grill.

Marinade:

½ c. soy sauce

¼ c. brown sugar

½ c. orange juice

1 large clove garlic minced

1 tsp. black pepper

1 – 2 lbs. sirloin tips or steak of your choice

Garnishes:

scallions, sliced into thin coins

sesame seeds, toasted

Accompaniments: Green pepper and sweet onion strips stir fried in peanut oil, black pepper and ginger root and garlic aromatics.

Note: If you choose to use a steak for this marinade, don’t forget to poke it all over with a meat fork to let the marinade really work its way into the slab of meat.

Roasted Hoisin Duck Breasts

I simply must share this simple dish. Silent Bob and I had it with a side of fried rice and almonds and stir-fried broccoli and peppers - fast and easy Asian.

Spicy Peanut Sauce ... and a Dish to Go With

the random cookbook and the middle recipe in the book ... what might it be?

Beef Noodle Soup

Another day ... another lunch! I am on a mission to use up all the little bits of things that I have in the fridge and this soup does the job admirably! A warm nod to a brisk afternoon, this soup has Asian overtones - earthy dried mushrooms,  garlic, ginger root, soy sauce, and dry wine added to a beef broth. Lean strips of beef are stir-fried in just a bit of peanut oil. Carrot and scallion strips are then stirfried with the garlic and minced ginger. The fortified broth is added and simmered to bring out the flavours and finish the dried mushrooms. Then spinach ribbons and Ramen noodles are added to finish the soup. Everything simmers until the beef is tender and the noodles have the perfect 'bite'. Yum ... it was a slurpy, savory affair!

Turkey Fried Rice

Making your own fried rice will spoil you ... it is so easy to put in more of what you like and less of what you don't. It's fresher than what you get in most Asian eateries and it's really not that hard to make if you just sharpen your knife and get chopping! Get yourself a good wok and some wooden or silicon spoons for stir frying and away you go!

An easy lunch that is nutritious and not too over the top ... turkey fried rice and a pot of tea ...

50 Woman Game-Changers - Delia Smith

I had never heard of Delia Smith until reading Gourmet Live's article on 50 Woman Game-Changers. It  just goes to show that we tend to pay attention to the media and TV shows on our particular continents and that cross-over is a rare and wonderful thing. Now, if Delia had a role in one of the BBC Masterpiece Theatre productions or in one of the Brit comedies or dramas that are becoming increasingly popular state-side, I might have had a chance.  Instead, she's big on cooking shows, in cookbook publishing, and in football (go figure!) - things that don't often make the cut on our US television cable systems. The Internet, however, is alive with information about her! I have added her official website to my list of  'favorites', so that I can get to know her recipes (boy, there are a lot of them!). I've been reading archives of her posts and making links to media articles written about her. She seems to be the Betty Crocker of modern day British society.

Sichuan Green Beans

Green beans are one of my favorite green veggies ... so when I see them in the market and they are in perfect shape, I buy them. I know. I'm bad. They're NOT in season here in New England, but damn! They looked so good and I've missed them so much since late August! Cut me some slack!